Another Sunny Day in San Fransokyo
by ANARCHY RULES
Summary: Set five years after the Big Hero 6, the team are now established superheroes in the city. But now an army of mutants led by a psychopathic super villain threatens to tear their city apart. While this happens, GoGo realises that she needs to address the fact that Hiro is no longer a child.
1. How to Catch a Moving Train

**This starts five years after the events of **_**Big Hero 6.**_

**Chapter One: How to Catch a Moving Train**

A wise scholar once said that, "When endlessly repeated, the fantastic will inevitably become the mundane."

While plummeting towards the Earth from thousands of feet, Hiro Hamada thought that the wise scholar was a complete and utter moron. While he had now been doing this sort of thing for five years now, each flight was as exhilarating as the first time he had gone airborne.

Just before making contact with the ground Baymax pulled up alongside the speeding train that they were chasing, practically _inches_ from becoming a smudge on the Californian landscape. Cruising at a steady three hundred miles an hour the Cross Continental monorail sped across the green countryside.

"Nice work, buddy," he said fondly, patting the robot's metallic body armour. Suddenly his headset receiver crackled.

"_Hiro, this is GoGo. Where are you?_"

"Right alongside the train," he replied, "How are you doing?"

"_I'm keeping on top of things._"

**~o~O~o~**

"I'm keeping on top of things."

_Ha ha, GoGo, real funny. What a great time to develop a sense of humour._

Hanging onto the roof of the speeding monorail's front carriage was the yellow armoured form of GoGo Tomago, doing everything to stop herself from being flung into the air.

"_Any word on the others?_" Hiro asked through her headset radio.

"All long range signals are jammed," she replied through gritted teeth, "Can't get through to 'em. It's just you and me today."

"_I am also present, Miss Tomago,_" While often claiming that, as a robot, it was impossible for him to be offended, Baymax sounded almost hurt.

"Sorry, Baymax," she said quickly, "You're here too."

"_I am aware of that._"

"_GoGo,_" Hiro interrupted, "_Is there an access patch or anything like that you can use to get inside?_"

"Yeah I can see one," she replied, forcing herself forward inch by inch, crawling across, "But they said they'd start killing hostages if they saw anyone."

"_Then don't let them see you. Duh. Hiro out."_

"Cheeky bastard," she muttered, smirking despite herself.

"_You know that I can still hear you, right?_"

"Shut up. I know that."

**~o~O~o~**

Forty-seven minutes before, the Cross Continental monorail had been hijacked on transit by thirteen armed men and women. They immediately took all ninety-three passengers hostage and informed the authorities that if twenty-five million dollars in cash was not delivered to them by the time they pulled into San Fransokyo, they would kill every passenger on board.

Naturally Hiro, GoGo and Baymax were not huge fans of the proposed arrangement and had elected to do something about it.

**~o~O~o~**

As carefully and silently as possible, GoGo opened the access hatch and jumped down into the train's interior.

Good, there was no-one to be seen, either gunman or hostage. She crept along the hallway before ducking into a nearby compartment. "Baymax," she whispered into her headset, "I need you to scan the train and tell me where they're keeping the hostages. If we can take out the men guarding them we can end this thing right now."

"_Scan complete,_" the robot replied, "_The greatest concentration of people is in the dining carriage, two carriages down from your position._"

"They should have had them scattered all throughout the train," she said, "That would have been the smart thing, it would have made it more risky for anyone planning a rescue."

"_Do you really want to start giving them tactical advice, GoGo?_" Hiro snarked.

"Shut up," she said to him for the second time that day, "Where are you?"

"_Baymax and I snuck in through the back,_" he replied, "_We'll go forward and meet you in the middle and then come up with more of a plan._"

"Sounds good," she agreed. She leant her head out of the compartment door before quickly ducking back in. She could see two black armoured figures enter her carriage, each carrying a strange looking gun.

_Okay, I'm going to have to do this fast._

Attaching the wheels to her wrists and ankles, she silently rolled across the floor after the pair before rising to her feet and tapping the nearest hijacker on the shoulder.

"Hi," she said calmly as they turned to face her, "I suppose asking for directions to the loo would be a step to far, right?" Before they could respond, she decked them both in their faces with her spinning wheels, knocking them out cold. "Morons," she muttered under her breath before continuing on her way.

"_Are you alright?_" Hiro asked, "Baymax said that there were some guys in your carriage."

"They just wanted to know if I was free to hang out later," she replied glibly.

"_Did you let 'em down gently?_"

"Oh _suuuure_,"she said sarcastically, "I was very considerate, charming, the whole bundle. I'm a very classy girl, you know that."

"_That's news to me._"

"Shut up."

**~o~O~o~**

"Are you and Miss Tomago undergoing social hostilities, Hiro?" Baymax asked as they passed through the cargo carriage.

"No," Hiro replied quickly, "Why do you ask?"

"Because she has told you to shut up on no less than four separate occasions within the past ten minutes." The nineteen year old laughed.

"It's just an expression, mate," he said, grinning at the robot. Even after all these years he was still constantly amazed by his friend's naiveté when it came to human interaction.

"Very well," said Baymax, "I will archive this form of human interaction for later analysis."

"Whatever floats your boat."

"I am capable of floating without need of a vessel such as a boat."

"It's just a… Oh never mind, I'm saying that _way _too much as it is anyway. It's practically a catchphrase at this point. Here we are."

**~o~O~o~**

"_GoGo,_" Hiro said, "_We've made it to the dining carriage. Where are you?_"

"One carriage down from you," she replied, "Baymax, how many guys are guarding the hostages?"

"_Approximately nine,_" the robot answered immediately.

"_Approximately?_" she asked, "That doesn't sound all that definite."

"_Given that I lack the specific medical information for every person on this train it is impossible to differentiate between the hostages and hostage takers,_" Baymax said apologetically, "_However, given that there are two bio-signs in the cockpit (one for the driver and one for the criminal) and two unconscious several carriages behind you, I am confident that my hypothesis is correct. However, I must point out that the device that is currently jamming our long range communications could potentially cause my instruments to make a false reading._"

"Fair enough," she said, stopping at the door to the dining carriage, "Alright, I'm here." She ducked underneath the window on the door.

"_What do you see?_" Hiro asked.

"They've got all of the passengers on the floor," she answered, looking out, "Packed together like sardines, if we screw this up a lot of them could die."

"_Then we won't screw it up,_" came the reply, _"Where are the gunmen positioned?_"

"Can't you see anything?"

"_We're in the cargo compartment,_" he said, "_There's no window on our door._"

"There is two gunmen right outside my door," she whispered, "Hang on, just let me take another look… _Yep,_ two on my door, three at yours and there's also two in the middle of the floor. This isn't gonna be easy. We'll have to take 'em all down at once before they can hurt the hostages. Hang on, how strong is the grip in your suit."

"_Pretty strong. Why? I'm not gonna like this plan, am I?_"

"Probably not," she replied smoothly, "But for some reason your discomfort is a cross I'm willing to bear."

"_Why do I put up with you?_"

"You just do."

"_Fair enough, what's the plan?_"

"Punch a hole in the roof and climb up out on top," she instructed, "Baymax will tell you when you're right on top of them, then kick down and take them out on my signal."

"_That'll actually work,_" he said, "_Of course you realise that your plan involves me scurrying across the roof of a train going at a respectable fraction of the speed of sound? Why can't Baymax do it?_"

"Because there's three guys at your door," she said, " They all have weird guns and to be perfectly honest, I'd rather have Baymax take three and you take two."

"_Are you suggesting that I can't take on three heavily armed men?_"

"Yes."

"_Fair enough._"

**~o~O~o~**

"Fair enough, my _ass_," Hiro muttered as he climbed out of the newly broken window.

"Be careful, Hiro," Baymax cautioned, "Even with your body armour, a fall from this height and at this speed could potentially cause you a serious injury, possibly even a fatal one."

"I'll be fine," he assured the robot, "See? No problem." He hoisted himself out and up onto the roof. "Okay, buddy," he said into his microphone, "You're gonna need to be my eyes here. How far forward do I go?"

"_Stand in the middle of the carriage,_" the robot instructed, "_Now move forward until I tell you to stop._" He crawled forward, inch by inch until he heard, "_Stop, you are directly on top of them._"

"If I come through the roof is there any chance of hitting a passenger?" he asked.

"_No,_" Baymax replied, "_There is a space of one point five metres between the gunmen and the nearest hostage._"

"Good to know," Hiro said, hitting a button on his wrist guard. A small compartment slid open to reveal a bright pink spherical blob. "Thank _you_, Honey-Lemon," he said fondly, "Alright, guys, I'm all ready to go, what about you?"

"_Ready when you are, kid._"

"_I am ready, Hiro._"

"Alright, let's do this."

**~o~O~o~**

"_Alright, let's do this,_" said Hiro, through GoGo's radio. She moved to the other end of her carriage, turning the hall into a makeshift runway as she crouched. "_We go on Baymax's signal. Count us down, buddy._"

"_Affirmative._

"_Five,_

"_Four,_

"_Three,_

"_Two,_

"_One,_

"_Now!_"

In less than two seconds, GoGo crossed the length of the entire carriage and leapt through the window, shattering it and piling into the two armed men. She looked up just in time to see a portion of the roof dissolve into a pink powdery cloud that Hiro fell through, landing on his two gunmen and slamming their faces into the floor.

While there was a certain impressive theatricality to the methods that the two humans used to dispatch their foes the elegant practicality of Baymax put them both to shame.

He simply punched through the door and delivered the armed men non-lethal electric shocks via the defibrillators in his hands.

"I always feel very superfluous whenever he's around," Hiro said dejectedly, "He makes it look so easy."

"Whine later," GoGo said quickly, "We've still got to get to the driver and make sure that he's alright. Baymax, watch these guys and look after the passengers."

"Affirmative," replied the robot before turning to face the still huddled passengers. "Please remain calm," he said in his soothing synthetic voice, "The situation is in good hands."

**~o~O~o~**

"What did you mean when you said that they had weird guns?" Hiro asked as he and GoGo ran down to the driver's compartment, "I didn't take that close of a look at them."

"I couldn't see any ammo mags on them," she said, "And there's some odd light things on the barrel. I'll get Wasabi to take a look at one once this I all over and –" She was suddenly cut off as Hiro tackled her into the nearest compartment just in time to avoid a sudden stream of blinding electricity.

"I'm starting to agree that there's something strange about those guns," he said distractedly. While it was very clearly the wrong time to be having suck thoughts, he couldn't help but notice that their faces were awfully close to one another. She pushed him off of her and stuck her head out before quickly pulling it back to dodge another blast of energy.

"What's he doing?" Hiro asked, crouching behind her.

"_She_ is just guarding the door to the driver," GoGo replied. "Okay, I'm gonna see if I can get to the compartment opposite us."

"GoGo, _wait!_" Hiro cried out but to no avail, the biker girl had already barrel rolled out through the hallway and into the opposite compartment, narrowly avoiding a third blast of electricity.

"What was that?" she called out, grinning cheekily at him, "I couldn't hear your concern for me over just how _awesome_ that was."

"Shut up," he replied, "Damn it, now you've got me saying it. So what's the plan? One-two?"

"Sounds good," she called back, "You can be the One."

"You just want me to go out there first so that I can get a big old face of lightning don't you?" he asked sarcastically.

"Aw, come on," she faux-crooned, the grin never leaving her face, "Where's your sense of chivalry? You're the big strong man and I'm just the small woman." Hiro knew from experience that GoGo would never _ever_ say something like that unless she really felt like screwing with him. However, if she wanted to play that game, he was more than happy to oblige her.

"I'm not a big strong man," he called out, "You're just _really_ tiny. Anyone looks big next to you."

"I'm gonna get you for that," she said dryly.

"_Hey!_" called out the woman with the lightning gun, "Are you going to fight or are you going to keep flirting?"

"Hang on," said Hiro, briefly looking out at her, "We're not flirting, this – this isn't flirting, we're just friends… Ah, forget it." He rolled out into the hall and then into the compartment next to GoGo's, a trail of lightning following him just as GoGo leapt out and hurled one of her wheels like a Frisbee out towards the woman, catching her straight in the chest and hurling her to the floor. Before she could regain her footing, Hiro tackled her and pinned her down.

"Do you two need a room?" GoGo asked, her right eyebrow raised high in amusement.

"Oh shut up and help me cuff her," he replied.

_I'm never taking the train again,_ he thought as GoGo smirked innocently at him.

**~o~O~o~**

_**One hour later**_

Looking down from the roof of nearest building, Hiro, GoGo and Baymax watched as the San Fransokyo police department haul away the hijackers and provide aid to the passengers. The sun was beginning its decent over the bay and the sky was awash with orange, blue and purple. Despite being strictly a science nerd that cared only about if something was practical or not, Hiro found himself really enjoying the sight for once.

"We did a good job guys," he said, grinning as the woman leading the attack was forced into the backseat of a police car before being driven away to lockup.

"That we did," GoGo agreed, rubbing Baymax's armoured side affectionately, "You did good in there, big guy. You even managed to pick this loser's slack."

"Hey," Hiro said, trying (and failing miserably) to sound offended before a smile crept out over his face. "Do you think the others are going to be mad they missed this one?" he asked.

"Wasabi and Honey, no," she said before grinning vindictively, "But Fred is gonna crushed. High speed train hijacks are apparently a beloved staple in those comics of his."

"Oh boy, he's gonna throw a hissy fit," Hiro agreed, smiling as they both took in the sunset.

After about forty seconds they both realised that the silence was now becoming somewhat awkward.

"So…" he said, shifting from foot to foot.

"Yeah," she said in the same tone of voice, "It's getting late, I should probably head off and… You know… Later, dude." She punctuated the last word by punching him lightly on the shoulder before turning around and walking away.

"Hiro," Baymax, "Are you alright? I noticed a significant increase in your heartbeat."

"Yeah," said Hiro before swallowing, "Everything's fine."

**~o~O~o~**

**I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. If you thought that the train thing was a little generic, don't worry, I just wanted to use a comic book staple for an action open, kind of like how **_**Skyfall**_** started (without the friendly fire though).**

**Also, about the characters' first names (non-nicknames):**

**While in the comics, the characters are all Japanese and have appropriately Japanese names, the cast for the movie had more ethnic variety. So, I was wondering that in cases when a first name would be needed (legal documents, official business, extremely dramatic scenes etc.) if it would bother anyone if I just used the voice actors' first names. For example, GoGo's first name would be Jamie for Jamie Chung. Let me know what you think about that in the comments.**

**Please leave a review and I'll see you next time.**


	2. Robots Have No Sense of Discretion

**Thanks to BronzeBaboon and Rocketeer101 for reviewing. I'm glad that you liked the first chapter.**

**Chapter Two: Robots Have No Sense of Discretion**

As soon as Hiro made it to the safety and peace of his apartment he was instantly tackled and spun around by concerned but yet frightfully angry Honey-Lemon.

"What were you _thinking?_" she howled, squeezing him even tighter, "We saw it all on the news. You could have could've been _killed!_" When it came to laying on the guilt, no-one could match the devastation that Honey-Lemon could inflict with those massive tear filled eyes of hers.

"_Ack!_" Hiro gasped, "Need… To… _Breathe!_" Honey-Lemon relaxed her grip _slightly_, just enough so that some air could make its way to his lungs.

"Better?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Good, then _what were you thinking?_" she repeated, "Why didn't you call us?"

"We tried to but we couldn't," he said quickly, "They had a jamming unit in the driver's compartment that blocked out all long range communications, we could barely stay in contact on the short range." She let go of him.

"Well that's… uh… actually that's a pretty good explanation," she admitted unwillingly before grumbling, "And now I've got all of this pent up rage and nobody to take it out on." Hiro couldn't help but smirk at her as she walked to the kitchen to pour a glass of water. "Watch it, mister," she said warningly, pointing her finger at him, "You're still not out of the woods yet. How did it go?" He smiled.

"Honey," he said, "You're my roommate, _not_ my mother. It's bad enough with Auntie Cass, she's still convinced that I'm too young to live away from home."

"Don't care," she said, "Spill." He shrugged.

"As well as any run of the mill moving high speed train hijacking prevention… thing," he said, holding his hands out. Going by the look she was directing his way, clearly she was unamused. "It went well," he elaborated, "No-one was hurt, except for the hijackers themselves and their suffering is a cross that I am more than willing to bear. We just went in, got the job done and got out. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"There was an irregularity with your heartbeat, Hiro," added Baymax, choosing now to enter the apartment.

"What's wrong?" Honey asked, once again fretful.

"Nothing, _nothing!_" Hiro hastily insisted. She looked at him doubtfully before taking a drink of water. Scolding people wreaked havoc on her vocal cords.

"Are you experiencing memory loss?" Baymax asked in his synthetic yet concerned voice, "Because your heartrate fluctuated dramatically when you and Miss Tomago held extended eye contact –" The rest of the robot's statement was drowned out by the sound of Honey-Lemon alternating between choking on her water and laughing.

"Don't. Say. A word," he said warningly. She just grinned in amazement.

"I didn't say anything," she replied, looking like she was two seconds away from squeeing. Hiro turned to Baymax. "Thanks, mate," he said somewhat sarcastically, "You always have my back."

"You are welcome," Baymax replied, still a stranger to sarcasm, "Are you satisfied with your care?"

"You know what? Yes I am," he said, "Now go and recharge and think about what you've done." He turned back to look at Honey-Lemon who was still smiling excitedly. "What?" he asked, "Nothing happened. _Nothing happened._"

"But you wanted something to happen," she said smugly with the kind of self-assurance that men have never learned how to master nor defend against.

"I didn't say that," he said quickly, "Your words, not mine."

"Hiro," she said enthusiastically, "It's perfectly alright. After all, you were in college at a young age, the only girls that you met on a regular basis were a few years your senior so it perfect sense that you would develop an attraction to older women."

"I do not have an _attraction_ to GoGo!" he practically growled. Somehow this just made her smirk grow in size and smugness. "_What?_"

"I just mentioned you having a possible attraction to older women," she said self-contentedly, "_You_ were the one to bring up GoGo." Groaning in defeat he slumped over and collapsed onto the couch in front of the television.

"What happened?" she asked, sitting next to his head and ruffling his hair in what she hoped was a sisterly fashion.

"Oh _fine_," he grumbled, "We'd finished the job and were watching the police wrap things up and we were talking and then all of a sudden… We weren't. Just silence. It was… It wasn't an awkward silence it actually felt like a good one if that makes any sense. Like we didn't have to say anything 'cause we knew each that well. There was a setting sun over the harbour and – _don't_ you dare laugh – I don't think that she's ever been more beautiful than she was in that moment (Honey-Lemon had to stifle an "Aw" as she was quite certain that it would not go down well with him), covered in dust and wearing banged up armour and _smiling _like… and then… Well, I guess we realised that something was happening and then it went awkward." He groaned again and buried his face in the seat cushion.

"There, there," she said patting him on the head, "We've all been there, trust me on that."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do," he said, "I mean, _come on_, she still thinks of me as a kid. I'm not but she does."

"I don't," she said suddenly, "No, don't worry, I'm not hitting on you, I just don't see you as a kid. I mean, we went to _college_ together. So no, I never saw you as a kid, just someone who was shorter than me and, let's face it, who isn't?" That actually got a laugh out of the boy.

"So what do you think I should do?" he asked.

"Go for it," she said simply. He looked up at her in shock. "What?" she asked, laughing incredulously, "You like her, you said that there was a moment so maybe she likes you in the same way. Maybe she doesn't but you're never going to know if you just sit around here moping. It doesn't have to be a bit dramatic gesture or anything like that either. Just ask her out to get a coffee or something like that and _talk to her._ I swear, men are so dense at this sort of thing."

"You think that it could work?" he asked hopefully?

"I don't know," she replied, shrugging, "But you never will know if you don't try."

**~o~O~o~**

GoGo frowned as she watched her instant noodles rotate around in her microwave. Something had happened on the rooftop a few hours ago and she was not entirely certain what it was. While there was no denying that she and Hiro had always been close over the past year she had noticed a change in him, especially regarding his mannerisms around her. Neither of them had ever talked about it, almost as though they had reached an unspoken agreement not to but now it was getting harder to do so.

Hiro liked her in a more than friends kind of way, that much she was certain of but she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about him. She _did_ like him, these days he really was her best mate, they liked the same movies, had similar hobbies and when the whole group had taken a beach holiday earlier that year she did have to briefly stifle a gasp when she saw what he looked like without a shirt but… There was an age gap and she wasn't sure if she was comfortable with that. It wasn't _that_ big, she was twenty-four, he was nineteen and it wasn't like he was a child. He had graduated _college_ for crying out loud. She needed to talk to someone about it to get some objective feedback.

Wasabi was probably _not_ the best guy to talk about it to. While he was probably the smartest of the group he was also a little too neurotic for this kind of discussion.

Fred was also immediately ruled out as… well… GoGo wasn't sure what she'd get by discussing this matter with him, it would either be really funny, really annoying or some combination of the two and that really was not what she needed at the time. Also, she would feel a lot more comfortable if she was discussing this with a woman.

Aunt Cass…? No, that probably wasn't the best idea. While she loved to mother them all and give them advice as well as constantly feed them, the fact that she was Hiro's aunt would certainly throw her objectivity into question.

That left Honey-Lemon. While the perky blonde was Hiro's roommate she was also one of her best friends and if she asked her to keep a confidence, she would.

**~o~O~o~**

Katherine Skylark was being held in isolation during her stay in police lockup. As she had been the one to lead the attack on the on the train, the police thought it best to keep her away from the rest of her team. She slightly shifted her position on the wooden bench that she was handcuffed to, causing her to wince slightly in pain. She could still feel the impact of the yellow armoured girl's spinning discs on her chest. She frowned as she thought back to what had happened. It was supposed to be so simple, hold the passengers hostage, have the demanded ransom deposited into a bank account of their choosing and then leave the still moving train so that by the time it reached the station they would have been long gone. They had specifically picked that particular stretch of track to start the hijack as it was the furthest point from any police station. It would have worked perfectly if not for those multi coloured freaks.

Despite the pain it caused her (and despite the fact that it was Bella Swan levels of childish) she stamped her foot against the concrete floor with such force that it echoed down the hall.

Hang on, that wasn't an echo. There was some sort of a commotion going on in the office outside. Wait? Was that gunfire? Suddenly, a police officer was flung through the door and he slid across the floor until his motionless body stopped right outside her cell door, just touching the bars. The keys to the door were dangling on the unfortunate officer's belt.

"Well?" said a voice, "Are you coming or not?" She looked up to see a man enter the holding area. With his navy blue Armani suit, expensive wristwatch and slicked back blonde hair, he could not have looked more out of place in his surrounding if he had tried. Despite the sounds of violence still happening out of view, he seemed quite calm, almost bored.

"Who are you?" she asked cautiously. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Does it really matter?" he asked, voicing the question like a request for directions to the nearest bus stop or something as equally mundane.

"Yes," she said sharply, "I go where I want."

"And how's that working out for you, sweetheart?" he asked sardonically, tapping the cell bars to illustrate his point. "Look," he said, "All that you need to know is that I'm the guy who's offering you a chance to get out of. It's also an ultra-exclusive, limited one-time offer so you'd better make a decision quick because it is going, going…"

"_Done,_" she replied firmly. Any deal had to be better than prison and if it wasn't, there was always the option of killing this guy and his goons and making a clean getaway. He smiled as she stole the dead guard's keys and unlocked her cell.

"Well come on then," he said, ushering her out of the holding area, "Time's a-wasting."

There was something about the man's smile that troubled her. It was almost as if he had known about her Plan B and as opposed to being worried, he found the idea of her trying to kill him to be something funny.

**~o~O~o~**

**I hope you enjoyed this new chapter. Thanks again to the people who review, the number of reviews increases the speed that I put up new chapters.**

**Also, since **_**Big Hero 6 **_**is technically a Marvel (non **_**MCU**_**) product would you like S.H.I.E.L.D. to make an appearance or would you like me to keep this as independent a story as possible?**

**Thanks for reading. Please review and I'll see you next time.**


	3. Laying Low

**Sorry about the gap between updates, exam time in Uni. Lots of fun**

**Chapter Three: Laying Low**

The explosion rocked the building to its very foundations. Agent Smythe snarled as he realised that the tower was coming down while he was stuck on the roof and that Captain Blue Fist was escaping with his one true love, Betty Carver.

"Save me!" she screamed as the blue skinned villain cackled manically.

_Ding! Dong!_

"Always when I'm reading," Fred grumbled, tossing his comic book on the couch as he made his way to the mansion's entrance. Naturally, Heathcliff had already greeted the visitor and ushered them inside. "Hiro!" he said excitedly, "What brings you here, bro?"

"I thought that you might want this," Hiro said, tossing the older man a strange looking gun, minus the power pack of course. He was smart enough to not walk around with a loaded gun, kinetic or otherwise. "I know that you weren't technically there but I figured that you still might want a trophy." Ever since they had started their superhero careers, Fred had always liked to claim a memento for every successful mission.

"Thanks," the surfer dude said while excitedly flipping the gun around and looking at it. "Still majorly bummed that I missed out on the heist. Looked totally wicked. How did it go?"

"It was fine," Hiro said, leaning against the wall, "The lady in charge was a bit of a psycho."

"Was she hot?"

"_Dude!_ She shot at me with a lightning gun."

"But was she hot?" Hiro shrugged helplessly.

"I don't know," he said, "I suppose she had a sort of rugged confidence about her that some might find attractive but not really my thing especially when you consider that she _shot at me with a lightning gun!_ I feel like you are ignoring that last part."

"Relax, bro," Fred said soothingly, "Just asking. Anyway, we all know that your thing is more in the line of tiny Korean girls with a penchant for stunt biking and bubble gum." Hiro grinned.

"When did you learn _penchant_?" Hiro asked, sounding impressed, completely missing the rest of the sentence for the moment, caring more about Fred's expanded vocabulary.

"_Hey,_" Fred said defensively, "I read."

"Okay, okay," Hiro said in a mollifying (yet somehow playfully sarcastic) tone of voice, "I'm sorry, sometimes I forget just how well read you are."

"So I know that you didn't come by to give me this seriously sweet gift, BT-Dubs, thanks man," he said happily while holding up the trophy, "So what brings you down here?"

"Just felt like getting out of the apartment for a bit," Hiro replied easily, "Honey-Lemon's really laying on the guilt trip for not being able to call."

"She's just worried," Fred said, leaping onto the nearest sofa and flopping his feet onto the clearly priceless coffee table, much to Heathcliff's eternal consternation.

"I know," Hiro relented, "But… You know."

"Yeah, I hear you, mate," the older man said sympathetically.

"Anyway," said Hiro, "The other reason I came by is that I'm thinking of making some modifications to my suit and you know how much I value you're… _er_… _enthusiastic _creativeinput_._"

"Happy to assist," said Fred happily.

**~o~O~o~**

There was something extremely off putting about the man in the navy blue suit, Katherine Skylark had decided. He had just arranged a prison breakout that had resulted in the deaths of three police officers and the only emotion that he seemed to be displaying was boredom as they huddled in the back of the speeding van. She looked at him curiously and he boldly stared back at her, silently daring her to break the silence first.

Suddenly the van came to a stop.

"Out," was all that he said and she followed him out of the van and into an alleyway where he and the van's driver led her to a nondescript looking yellow car. "In," he said curtly as he climbed into the backseat with her quickly following. As soon as the driver got them back out onto the main roads she realised that she had had enough with the man's cryptic attitude.

"Alright," she snapped, "That's it! I want answers. Who the hell are you and where are we going?" Both the man in the suit and the driver started laughing. "_What?_" she demanded in an icy tone of voice.

"Oh it's nothing," said the man, still shaking with laughter as he passed the driver a twenty dollar bill, "It's just… Given that you were the kind of person who designed a high tech weapon like your zappy ray gun of death thing, _I_ bet that you would wait until the end of the drive to start asking questions. _He_," the man nodded at the driver, "disagreed and bet me a twenty. He won." He cocked his head curiously. "Actually, Howard, have I _ever_ won one of our bets?"

"There was that time congress voted to ban teaching Intelligent Design in schools," said Howard the driver, "Definitely didn't see that one coming." The man chuckled fondly at the memory.

"Yeah," he said, grinning, "I never expected to win that one, it was more naïve optimism than anything though of course I am now naturally happy to have our class rooms once again become a safe haven for knowledge rather than superstition." He turned back to Katherine. "Don't worry, sweetheart," he said, revelling in her obvious displeasure at being called _sweetheart_, "All will be revealed when we reach our destination."

**~o~O~o~**

Hiro looked up from his work as Wasabi entered Fred's basement/the team's workshop. "Hey," he said tiredly, "I didn't know that you were coming by."

"Fred called and said that you were working on some suit modifications," said Wasabi, "At least he did before he passed out on the chair over there." He nodded in the direction of the comatose, snoring Fred. "What are you working on?" he asked, looking at the blueprints the younger man had laid out. "Leg modifications?" he mused, "Interesting. What's this, jet boots? What are you thinking, you want to fly around like Baymax?"

"Not exactly," Hiro replied, "Because I'm quite a bit smaller than our marshmallow friend I don't think that there would be enough room in the armour to fit in all of the components that I'd need for actual flight." Wasabi nodded when he realised where Hiro was going with his line of thought.

"So you're thinking of some sort of jump ability? Like what Fred has?"

"Not exactly," Hiro countered, "I'm thinking something jet based. It would make for a faster speed. I'm just having some trouble fitting it all in without slowing me down when running."

"Let me take a look at it," Wasabi said, sitting down next to him and grabbing a pencil. "So," he said, "How was the train job?" Hiro half laughed, half groaned.

"You've got to be the third person to ask me that tonight, well _morning_ now, but same thing," Hiro said, glancing at his watch.

"Just curious," Wasabi said calmly, scribbling on the paper.

"It was alright," Hiro said, downplaying the whole thing, "Although later I do want to look into the woman that was in charge of the gang."

"Why?"

"They had these strange guns," he said, "They shot out burst of electrical energy. No ammunition limit, just a battery. Normal guns in civilian hands is bad enough but these things? I want to find out who's making and distributing them so we can shut 'em down before too many of those get out."

"How do you plan on getting into the station?" Wasabi asked.

"I was thinking of asking Krei to help with that," Hiro replied, "I'm sure he knows something that could help." He then looked down at Wasabi's handiwork. "Ooh," he said excitedly, "I like that. We'll have try it out to make sure it works but I like it." Wasabi's design had added small jet boosters to the bottom of the boots and while that alone was not enough to make the kind of jumps that Hiro had in mind, the additional boosters attached to the suits gauntlets would be more than enough as well as providing greater directional control. "This is good." Wasabi grinned.

"Thought you'd like it," he said proudly, "Now I've been spitballing some ideas for modifications to my suit, strength augmentation and the like, and I wanted to run them by someone to get some feedback…"

**~o~O~o~**

By the time San Fransokyo had disappeared over the horizon the sky was beginning to turn a pale pink as the sun started to creep up over the hills. The car skimmed along the highway until it finally came to a stop outside a large house just parked alongside the road in the middle of nowhere. "You are allowed to get out of the car now," said the man. Katherine frowned as she climbed out of the vehicle, did _anything_ rattle this guy? He was too calm. He had to be on something she decided, even if he was displaying no physical symptoms of mood altering medication. He and Howard led her inside and she was surprised to see that despite the house's rustic exterior, the inside resembled a commercial for Apple. Everything was white, smooth and gleaming. "This way," he said, leading her downstairs into the basement which appeared to serve as a lab room of some kind. He then turned to face her. "I imagine that you have some questions that you would like to ask," he said, smirking.

"Like, for starters, who are you?" she asked immediately. He shrugged.

"Let's just say that I am a _big _fan of your work," he said enigmatically.

"That's not an answer," she challenged.

"But it's all that you're getting for now," he replied.

"Why did you break me out? What do you want from me?" she asked.

"I just want you to keep working," he said, "I think that you have the potential to go far, all you need is a benevolent benefactor."

"Like you?" she asked sarcastically.

"_Exactly!_" he said brightly, "Now I love your work. That zappo lightning gun thing? _Love it!_ Now, it is with that love that I must inform you that your little train heist idea was kind of dumb. Once those hero guys showed up you had no back-up plan to deal with it. The whole thing reeked of _desperation._ What is it that you want Miss Katherine Skylark?"

"My business," she said icily. Far from being offended, the man just continued to smile that infuriating smirk.

"No problem," he said, "After all, a woman does need to keep a little mystery about her. Anyway, I've got this little… _weeell_ I suppose you could call it a _side project_ coming up in the next few months and I could do with a little insurance. Basically, I'd really appreciate it if you kept on doing what it is you do best."

"Which is…?"

"Building things that go bang!" he said enthusiastically, "You whipped together those lightning guns with a box of scraps. I'd like to see what you could do with a more _generous_ budget at your disposal. You would work here and of course you would be compensated with an absolutely absurd amount of money. Howard here would also stay to assist you. Don't let his humble appearance fool you, he is quite a quick thinker and should be able to keep up with you."

"And if I were to decline your kind offer?" she responded challengingly.

"Then the door is in that direction," he said pointing at the stairs, "After all, you are not my prisoner, no-one here is holding a gun to your head. Say the word and you're free to go… _but_, do you have a plan? After all, you _are_ an escaped prisoner implicated in an attempted hostage taking situation… thing. Would staying off the grid for a while really be such bad thing?" Katherine sighed.

"Fine then," she relented, "You've got yourself a deal but you better be straight with or I'll find a way to wipe that smirk off your face. _Trust me_." The man in the suit looked offended.

"I would _never_ imply that a lady was being untrustworthy," he replied haughtily.

**~o~O~o~**

**Thanks for reading. While I know this update focussed more on the villains, I felt that since they are OCs I needed to take time to establish their characterisations. Please review and I'll see you next time with a more good guy focused chapter.**


	4. Passing the Point of No Return

**So sorry about the eternity between updates. My computer broke and I had to wait for it to be fixed. Updates will now be much quicker. Sorry again.**

**Chapter Four: Passing the Point of No Return**

"You're staring again," GoGo said in a reprimanding tone of voice as she confidently strode towards the building.

"Sorry," said Hiro quickly, walking faster to try to keep pace with her, "It's just different seeing you… _well,_ like that."

"Like _what?_" she asked, her right eyebrow moving north as she looked at him.

"All… _formal_," he said lamely. GoGo was dressed in charcoal grey business suit that was _extremely_ figure hugging, something that Hiro certainly noticed… repeatedly.

She tried to scowl at him but had to turn away when a smirk threatened to break out over her face.

The idiot was cute when he was nervous. Especially considering that he too was wearing a suit.

"Relax," she said, "Take a deep breath and _try _to make it look like you belong here."

Earlier that morning, GoGo had phoned Alistair Krei and asked him to book a meeting at the police station where the train hijacker Katherine Skylark was being held until she could be transferred to a more secure detention facility. They were acting as representatives for Krei's R&amp;D department making sure that no Krei technology had been used in the attempted heist.

As they climbed the stairs to the entrance, they could hear sounds of commotion from within. As soon as they opened the doors they were greeted by a swarm of police officers going over every inch of the reception. There were what appeared to be bullet holes sporadically dotting the walls and police tape blocking the hallway past the reception.

"_Hey!_ What are they doing here?" demanded the lead detective, stalking toward the pair with a furious expression covering her face. "You need to leave right now," she ordered sternly, "This is an active crime scene."

"We're from Krei Corp," said GoGo quickly, "And we had a meeting with one of the prisoners being held here. A Katherine Skylark." The detective laughed harshly.

"_Skylark?_" she asked acidly, "She's the one who did all of this." She gestured around the war torn reception.

"She escaped?" Hiro blurted out, "How on Earth could she do that?" The detective scowled at her.

"Get out of here, kid," she snarled, "And let me do my job." And with that they were both marched out of the station, the doors slamming shut behind them.

"Well that was certainly productive," GoGo said, leaning against a bike rack.

"How the hell could they let her get away?" Hiro exploded, waving his arms theatrically. Despite the seriousness of the situation, GoGo had to smother a chuckle at his overreaction.

"I doubt they unlocked the door for her and said "see ya later"," she said sardonically.

"You know what I mean," he replied, "You're taking this awfully well."

"I'm not a cop," she said simply, "And neither are you. People were in danger and we stopped it but a manhunt is for people trained to do that. If she shows her face again, we'll take her down but until then we should leave it to the cops."

"You really think so?" Hiro asked.

"Yeah I really do," she responded, "We don't know the first thing about hunting someone down. We can get Baymax to scan around but aside from that it's just not our area of expertise."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he grumbled, "Still annoyed though. She shot at me with a lightning gun!"

"Dude are you really still whinging about that?" she snarked, "Let it go. You were barely grazed."

"I have a burn mark," he protested defensively.

"Walk it off," she replied, "Now come on."

"What for?" he asked, thoroughly confused, "Didn't our entire day's schedule just clear?"

"Exactly," she said, grabbing his tie and walking off , forcing him to follow, "And there's no way on Earth that I'm wasting having to put on this ridiculous outfit. You're taking me to breakfast."

**~o~O~o~**

"Aunt Cass is going to murder us in our sleep if she finds out that we went to another café," Hiro said, smirking briefly at the thought of his aunt's reaction.

"Then I guess we just won't tell her," GoGo replied, raising her eyebrows almost playfully at him. He swallowed nervously. After all, she was very pretty when she did that. He took a sip of the complimentary water left on the table for them as a casual way of breaking eye contact with her. "So," she began, "I was thinking that maybe we should talk." He choked briefly on the water which was unsurprising. After all 'we should talk' and all other variations of that phrase were rarely the precursor to good news. "About…" Suddenly GoGo found herself struggling with her words. This was weird, not knowing the right thing to say, especially for a girl who prized having just that at all times. She knew that she should have talked to Honey-Lemon about this first to get some feedback. "About some modifications I was thinking about making to my suit," she said finally, somewhat lamely.

"Oh," he said in response, releasing the breath that he didn't know he had been holding. "It's funny you mention that actually, Wasabi, Fred and I were working on modifications on our stuff all last night." The tension disappeared as they moved onto the harmless subject of suit modifications.

"Good morning," said the waitress as she reached their table, "What can I get for you today?"

"I'll take a low fat strawberry parfait," GoGo said, handing the waitress her menu, "and a skinny latté."

"And what about you?" the waitress asked, turning to Hiro.

"The largest stack of pancakes that you can legally sell to me, heavy with whipped cream, ice cream and maple syrup with a large chocolate milkshake," Hiro replied, enjoying GoGo's reaction to his order. "What?" he asked as soon as the waitress left.

"Oh nothing, _nothing,_" she replied insincerely, "I'm just _impressed_ at such a healthy meal you chose to start the day with."

"Oh like you're not gonna steal half of my food," he said, grinning, "Why do you think I ordered so much? You always order some boring, healthy option that you can justify to yourself and then you steal all of my food. I remember Wasabi's last birthday, you ordered the salad, I got a large pizza covered with every meat known to man and some only known to aliens but somehow I ended up only having half a slice of the entire thing."

"Oh," she scoffed, "So you know me so well now, do you?"

"Well… _yeah,_" he replied, shrugging, "I know you very well."

"Like what?" she asked challengingly, spinning her straw in her water, "What do you know about me?"

"Well, for starters I know that you like gum," he said, his smile hiding the whirlwind of activity going on inside his head. He realised that if he followed through with what he was thinking, he would be passing the point of no return.

"No way," she deadpanned in response to his statement, "How did you deduce that, Sherlock? Do you have any other amazing observations to dazzle me with?"

"You don't suffer fools lightly," he continued, "But that doesn't mean that you don't have empathy for people who feel lost or are just going through a rough patch in their life, you're usually the smartest person in the room but you're never arrogant about it." As he spoke his voice started to change, it was less mocking and more… something else. GoGo didn't know the word she should use to describe it but it was certainly having some sort of an effect on her. "You like pop songs from the early noughties but you can't stand rap or boy bands of any kind, you're kind to people that need help and when you stand outside at night time I think that you look like an angel." GoGo was speechless. She certainly hadn't expected the conversation to go in this direction especially after she herself had chickened out at the last second. Her mouth hung open almost comically while she processed what he had just said. "And," Hiro added, thinking in for a penny, in for a pound, "if it ever seems like that I have a massive crush on you… well, those are just some of the _very _many reasons why."

_Yep_, he thought to himself, _I guess that was the point of no return._

After spending several seconds feeling like she had been hit in the face by one of Baymax's rocket fists, GoGo managed to close her mouth. Hiro laughed nervously.

"Wow," he said, partially to himself and partially to her, "I honestly didn't see the conversation going that way."

"Yeah," GoGo replied distantly, "Same." _This is weird_, she thought. She was supposed to be the more sane, more level headed member of the group and now she was only speaking in single syllable words.

She needed to snap out of it.

"Are you asking me out on a _date?_" she asked bluntly, hurling the ball back into his side of the court.

Now it was _his_ turn to impersonate a guppy at feeding time.

"Uh, um, uh… kinda… yeah, actually yes I am," he managed to stammer. Despite his initial stammering, the last three words of his response came out remarkably strong considering his nervousness.

"Okay then," GoGo replied, "I thought that's what you were saying. So…"

"Yeah," Hiro added aimlessly.

As he struggled to decide what to say next, GoGo came to a decision.

"Alright," she said, "I want to try something. Try not to freak out too much." Before he could ask her what she was talking about, GoGo had grabbed his tie, pulled him towards her so he was leaning across the table and pressed her lips against his.

_Oh_, he thought distantly, all other mental processing retreating from his mind.

The kiss was entirely exploratory, if somewhat clinical, at least at first. After all, GoGo was not entirely sure how she felt about Hiro in a romantic sense and she wanted to make sure that they were at least physically compatible before things got too out of hand.

At first Hiro was unsure on whether he should kiss her back but he quickly reasoned that GoGo kissing him was her giving him implicit permission to do so.

As the kiss deepened, he reached up his one hand to cup the side of her face. He was feeling close to being overwhelmed by every sensation that he was experiencing, the soft feel of her lips, the taste of strawberry bubblegum and the fact that it was freaking _GoGo_ that he was kissing.

However, like all good things, the kiss eventually had to come to an end. As their lips parted, they gently touched their foreheads to the other's. A small chuckle escaped GoGo and Hiro was fairly certain that he was grinning like an idiot.

"Wow," was all he managed to get out, his grin threatening to cause his face to split.

"Yeah," she said in a similarly stunned voice, "That happened." Hiro giggled.

"GoGo, you kissed me," he said, still feeling slightly dazed.

"Yeah," she replied, playfully her eyebrow at him, "You kissed me back."

"No I kissed your mouth," he countered before wincing slightly. "That was terrible," he said apologetically before laughing again.

"Yeah," she agreed, "But I've known you were a moron for years now. I knew what I was getting into."

**~o~O~o~**

**Sorry again about the gap between updates, things should be back to normal now. Please review and let me know what you think.**


	5. Something Normal

**I am so sorry for the criminally long time between updates. A combination of exams plus **_**severe **_**writing block crippled me creatively. However, I now have a plan for where I want this story to go, so if I get enough interest (i.e. reviews) I would love to keep writing.**

**Chapter Five: Something Normal**

It was still strange to actually feel GoGo's lips against his. Hiro had been head over heels for this girl for years and now she was actually kissing him back outside his front door.

"I really want to invite you inside," he whispered, their mouths not even a centimetre apart.

"And I really want you to," she replied, her breath hot against his face.

"But…?" he asked, knowing that word was coming.

"_But_ we really shouldn't," she said, somewhat regretfully.

"I know," he said, grinning sardonically.

"I'm not saying never," she quickly added, "I'm just saying… not… _tonight._ I really want this to work and I don't moving too fast would… I just don't think it would be a good idea."

"You're right," he replied, "There's just one problem."

"What's that?" she asked playfully, her lips brushing against the side of his neck.

"That for me to go inside, we have to stop."

"That _is_ a problem," she agreed before pushing him hard against the wall and kissing him again.

**~o~O~o~**

"Hey."

Hiro quickly spun around in the direction of the voice. Honey-Lemon was lying down on the sofa, idly channel surfing when he entered.

"Ah, ah nothing," he quickly stammered. _Nothing?_ He thought to himself. _Why did I say that? That's not how you respond to "hey."_

"Ok-ay then," she replied, obviously confused by his reaction. "How was GoGo?" she asked.

"What do you – What do you mean?" he replied, "How would I know anything about GoGo?"

"How is she? You both went to the police station, right?"

"Ah, yeah… Yeah we did," he said quickly, "The detective there wouldn't let us in. The… um… Skylark, she escaped." Honey-Lemon frowned at the news.

"That's not good," she said unnecessarily, "What are we going to do?" Hiro shrugged, a little calmer now that she was asking about something other than GoGo.

"I don't know," he said honestly, "I was thinking of taking Baymax to scan the city tomorrow but aside from that I think that this is a police matter. We deal with things as they come. Honey-Lemon sighed, obviously not thrilled with the idea but also understanding the need to be realistic. They simply lacked the ability to be more proactive in dealing with crime.

Hiro looked around the living room. "Where is Baymax anyway?" he asked.

"In his charging station," she replied before looking at him critically. "Are you _sure _that you're alright?" she asked, "You looked a little jumpy when you got in."

"I'm fine," he insisted, a little _too_ quickly.

"So what did you do then?" she asked.

"Just went for a walk," he answered, shrugging again.

"For _twelve hours?_" she asked, obviously unconvinced.

"Um, yeah," he offered weakly. Her eyes narrowed and she grinned sardonically.

"Alrighty, _Mister_," she said firmly, "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," he said immediately. "_Nothing,_" he repeated. She continued to look at him, her glasses magnifying her eyes to giant orbs of doubt. He grinned awkwardly at her. "You know what?" he said, "I'm not feeling hungry so I think that I'm just gonna head to my room." Her eyes followed him until he had retreated to the safety of his bedroom.

Finally free from his roommates all too perceptive gaze, Hiro allowed himself to collapse onto his bed. Just less than five minutes ago, he had been kissing GoGo.

He could still feel how soft her lip were when they were pressed against his.

**~o~O~o~**

GoGo flopped onto her bed. She could honestly say that she had not seen the day turning out the way it had. After leaving the police station she had suggested going to breakfast so as to see how she and Hiro would interact in a date like setting. She hadn't expected him to actually come out and say that he liked her.

And then she had kissed him.

The rest of the day had kind gone in a blur as they adjust to the transition from good friends to something more intimate. They hadn't done anything major, they had just walked around the city holding hands. It was so… _normal_. No explosions, no bad guys, no runaway trains, just the two of them. After the rough and tumble of her day to day life, something normal had the potential to be extraordinary, to be something _precious_.

And then they ended up outside his door. She had wanted to go in but had also meant what she said. She wanted to get this right.

It still didn't help with the feeling of frustration that she was currently experiencing. A feeling that she desperately wished to dispel.

"Stupid hormones," she muttered as she felt her hand creep under her waistband.

**~o~O~o~**

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

Honey-Lemon glanced at her bedside clock.

_1:02 am._

It could only be Hiro knocking on her door but what could he possibly want at this ungodly hour? She reluctantly climbed out of bed, ambled over to the door and opened it to reveal an extremely agitated looking Hiro.

"Uh… hi," he said quickly, "I'm sorry for… I'm… I'm sorry for waking you but I'm kind of freaking out right now. Can I… Can I talk – I mean, can _we _talk?" Honey-Lemon quickly opened the door all the way and ushered the younger man into her room.

"Yes of course," she replied. She made him sit on her bed, their many years of friendship and six months of cohabitation removing any awkward feelings that could have otherwise arisen from the situation. "So," she began, "What's wrong?" He didn't say anything in response, simply continuing to stare at his knees. "Hiro," she said gently, putting a sisterly arm around his shoulder, "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"I didn't spend the day walking around the city," he said quietly. She smiled kindly at him.

"I kind of figured that part out all on my own," she said, "I have an IQ of 141, I can _occasionally_ pick up on things." Hiro chuckled, slightly more at ease. "So what did you do instead of walking around the city all day?"

"I told GoGo how I felt about her," he admitted softly. She was momentarily taken aback. After all, she hadn't actually expected him to take her advice and try talking to GoGo about his feelings.

"And…?" she asked.

"She kissed me," he said simply. Honey-Lemon laughed and squeezed him tighter.

"That's great news, Hiro," she happily exclaimed, "So what's going to happen now?"

"We're going to try dating," he said. For some reason, he didn't sound quite as enthusiastic as he could have.

"Isn't that a good thing?" she asked him. He nodded. "But what's wrong?"

"I've never done this before," he said, "You know, I went to college, became a superhero, did a lot of weird out of the ordinary things before I even turned _eighteen._ I guess that I never really got around to doing the… _ordinary _things. I've never really had a girlfriend before. Okay, I'm scared, I've never done this before. I don't really know what to do. What if I screw it up?"

"Oh sweetie," she said, her arm still wrapped around him, "You're going to do just fine. Bit of advice though, GoGo, as I'm sure you know, can be used to… uh, getting her own way. Just don't let her walk over you, it's alright to give a little push back occasionally."

"I'll keep that in mind," he replied.

"So are you feeling a bit better?" she asked. He grinned ruefully, now feeling a little embarrassed over being in such a vulnerable state.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he said, "Thanks, you know, for, for listening."

"Anytime," she replied. "Now," she added, "If you're feeling better am I allowed to squee because I've been one in for the majority of this conversation and I should warn you that it's going to be a big one."

"Go to town," he laughed and she let out a high pitched squee of truly _epic_ proportions.

_SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!_

"Oh I'm so happy for you," she said when she was done.

"I'm touched, truly," he said dryly as he tried to dispel the ringing in his ears. "Hey, can you do me a favour?"

"Sure," she replied, "What do you need?"

"Can this just be between us for now?" he asked, "I don't want the other guys to know until we've… you know, gone on a few dates and established everything."

"Yeah, I can do that."

**~o~O~o~**

_**Two weeks later**_

Katherine Skylark pursed her lips together as she examined the blueprints that she had spent the better part of the week working on. While it was only early days and could not possibly be ready in such a short amount of time, she still could not help but feel angry at what she perceived to be a serious lack of progress.

"I trust that everything is going well, ma'am," said Howard as he entered the lab, carrying a tray with a fresh pot of coffee.

"I'm fine, Howard," she said, "And please stop calling me that."

"Yes, ma'am," he immediately replied. She sighed audibly. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked, glancing at the blueprint.

"I just can't generate the required energy for a device of this size to work," she said irritably. "If it was allowed to be bigger? Sure, no problem, that would be easy but _this?_"

"I have every confidence that you will come to the correct solution," he said optimistically, "However, if it would not be too bold of me, might I suggest…" He picked up a pencil and scribbled in a quick addition to the blueprint. "Now this doesn't fix your energy problem entirely but I strongly think that this is a step in the right direction."

"Hmm," she hummed thoughtfully, "You know that's not a half bad idea. Thanks. Hey, Howard?"

"Yes ma'am," he said.

"What's a guy like you doing with… _Seriously,_ what is your boss' name?" she asked, "Why are you with a slimy suit like him?"

"My employer values his privacy," Howard replied (pronouncing the word "PRIV-I-SEE" with the merest hint of an English accent poking its head out), "And I respect that. As for why I am in his service, well, he has done a lot for over the years. He is my friend. Now, is there anything more that you require from me tonight?"

"Nah, I'm pretty good," she said, "I should probably take another swing at this. Oh, and Howard. Thanks again for the help."

"My pleasure, ma'am," he said, bowing slightly, "Let me know if you require more coffee or anything else for that matter."

**~o~O~o~**

They were sitting cradled in opposite ends of her couch, each holding steaming cups of coffee and trying to pretend there wasn't hail and freezing rain pounding against the windows. Something - the lateness, the quiet, the storm or maybe just the intimacy of having her feet brushing his under the blanket gave him the courage to ask what had been on his mind for some time. "GoGo," Hiro began nervously, "Have you…? I mean, of course you… Have there been a lot of…? Have you…?" She scoffed slightly before deciding to take pity on him.

"Three," she replied, wagging that many fingers at him as if he needed clarification.

"Three?" he repeated.

"Uh-huh," she said before calmly taking a sip of coffee.

"Only three?" She choked slightly as her coffee went down the wrong way.

"_Hiro Hamada!_" she said in a faux-scandalised tone, her grin killing most of the scorn, "Just what are you trying to imply?" He blushed a deep shade of red before answering.

"I just thought it would have been more," he mumbled.

"And why is that?" she asked, raising a single eyebrow playfully.

"Well…" he shrugged. "I think that you're pretty awesome so it stands to reason that other guys might share that thought." She moved over to his side of the couch, grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her, snuggling against him.

"Thanks," she said, turning around slightly so she could kiss him.

"I'm just saying what's true," he replied. She smiled at his words and closed her eyes in contentment.

She felt very warm.

And very happy.

"Why do you ask?" she asked, "And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"How many have you…? You know?" He was quiet for a few seconds before finally answering.

"None," he said simply.

"Wow," was her response, "I honestly didn't expect that. Cute, nerdy guy like you, I figured the girls would be throwing themselves at you."

"I've been on a few dates," he said, "You know that, _Hell_, you criticised everyone at some point. But… well, I've never had a girlfriend before, just you and any of the girls I was with… well, we just never went that far. Don't laugh but I wanted to be with someone special." He couldn't see her face but she smiled gently at his statement. While still making sure that his arms were wrapped around her, so shifted around so that their faces were just centimetres apart.

"I really like you, Hiro," she said, caressing his face, "That being said, you're _not_ going to get lucky tonight." He laughed.

"I feel pretty lucky right now," he said, looking her right in the eye, stroking her hair with the hand not wrapped around her. "Right here, right now, with you. Anything more would just be a bonus." He then leant forward to kiss her.

"You could get luckier soon though," she added alluringly before kissing him again.

"Ew," said a voice. They broke the kiss and looked up to see Honey-Lemon carrying two pizza boxes, the delicious smell radiating off them. Her expression was the unholy lovechild of scorn and amusement. "I leave for twenty minutes to get dinner for us and come home to this." She grinned and giggled. "I think that I officially no longer find this to be cute. Now scoot over," she said, shoving Hiro to the centre of the couch so that he was pressed against GoGo and that there was now room for a third person, "I got us a trashy rom-com to watch because they're always fun when GoGo's around."

"I hate rom-coms," GoGo stated flatly.

"I know," said Honey-Lemon, nodding enthusiastically, "That's what makes them fun."

The perky blonde immediately received a cushion to the face.

**~o~O~o~**

**I hope that you enjoyed this and continue to read as I update.**

**Please review and I'll see you next time.**


	6. So He Changed It

**Author's note: Alistair Krei's assistant with short hair and glasses appears in this chapter. As she hasn't been given a name as of yet I have decided to name her Denise. However, if she is ever given a name from an official source, I will immediately change it to whatever **_**Disney**_** picked.**

**Chapter Six: So He Changed It**

"So this is how I think Fred and Wasabi should find out about us," GoGo whispered as Fred, Wasabi and Honey-Lemon watched TV in Fred's massive living room with Baymax sitting in the corner, attempting to figure out the purpose of a Chinese finger trap. Alistair Krei had said that he wanted to talk to the group and they agreed to meet at Fred's mansion rather than _Krei Tech_. She discreetly took Hiro's hand. "I want them to discover us in the perfect couple moment. They catch us in the middle of a nice, _normal_ kiss.

"Because just telling them would be silly," he said drily.

"Are you saying that you don't want to kiss me?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes seductively at him. He audibly gulped. Those eyelashes of her were deadly, _deadly_ weapons when directed at him.

"Alright, _alright,_" he said, reaching for the back of her head and leaning his face towards hers with his lips slightly parted.

"Hey, _come on,_" she said reprovingly, "You're not going off to war, just give me a nice, gentle peck on the lips." And with that, she stood on her toes and lightly kissed him on the lips. Apparently, whatever was on the television made for some truly riveting viewing as no-one looked over at them. Also, as the kiss was supposed to be "a nice, gentle peck on the lips" there was no passion allowed in the action and Hiro and GoGo basically just stood there with their lips pressed against each other's with no movement.

"You should know that I have never hated anything this much," Hiro mumbled against GoGo's lips after thirty seconds had passed. She rolled her eyes but continued. "I don't think they saw us," Hiro said, his his lips still brushing against hers, "What now?"

"I don't know," she said, "Maybe you should cough to get their attention." He did as she instructed. "Not in my face, dude," she said sharply, "Turn your head and _then_ cough."

However, it turned out that all of their effort was in vain as Honey-Lemon looked up at them, ginned mischievously and asked, "Have you two told these knuckle-heads that you're hooking up yet?"

"_Now_ they look," GoGo said irritably as Wasabi and Fred's heads swivelled in their direction.

"Alright," said Hiro, "Obviously this is huge news so do you have any questions?"

"I actually thought that you two were already dating," Krei said as Fred's butler, Heathcliff, led the billionaire and his short haired personal assistant into the living room.

"Wow, Krei," GoGo began, "In a few minutes, I'll be giving out the _"Who Invited You?"_ award and you're going to want to get your speech ready." The CEO cracked a grin.

"You know, I really look forward to our talks," he said with a swagger. His assistant, Denise, rolled her eyes, long used to her employer's cockiness.

**~o~O~o~**

Hiro and the others had had a very rocky beginning with Alistair Krei, the multibillion dollar CEO of Krei Tech. When Hiro had first met him, he was not impressed with what he saw to be an arrogant one percenter who would step on anything or anyone if it meant making a profit. Sure, he must have been in possession of some techno know-how because he was the owner of the biggest tech conglomerate in the world but he had cut corners and crossed lines to get where he was.

At least according to Professor Robert Callaghan.

Even after five years, Hiro could not look back on that without his hands shaking with rage.

He had _trusted_ that man, idolised him, and in return, Callaghan stole his invention and murdered his brother for what was ultimately a needless revenge scheme.

That what was what angered him the most. The fact that, in the end, Callaghan had no need to do anything in the name of revenge as his daughter was alive all along.

This wasn't to say that Krei had been a saint all along. He had done things of a morally ambiguous nature to get where he was. Nothing illegal, or even evil but just little things that added up and after Big Hero 6 had saved him from Callaghan's wrath he was filled with disgust at himself for his actions over the many years. For the first time in a long time he was filled with perfect clarity about his future. His small misdeeds would snowball into larger acts of immoral nature and one day he would wake up, cold, withered and alone, having driven away everyone in his life that mattered. He saw the future that was ahead of him and realised that he wanted no part of it.

So he changed it.

He started by paying for the construction of the Tadashi Hamada Convention Hall at San Fransokyo Tech to replace the building that had been destroyed in the fire that started the chain of events that led to his soul searching but he didn't stop there. After Callaghan's attack, he paid a visit to a small café run by a woman that he could only describe as "bubbly" and said that he wanted to talk to her nephew.

Hiro didn't say anything at first, just silently watched Krei as he tried to explain what he wanted to do. "You want to _sponsor _us?" he said finally, the word sponsor laced with derision.

"Not exactly," Krei said quickly, "This isn't about me or my company. I just want to help you and your friends."

"And I'm sure backing a team of superheroes makes for great PR," Hiro said sarcastically.

"I just said that this isn't about me or the company," he replied, "You helped me, you saved my life and I just want to return the favour. As you probably know, I've been involved in a lot of shady deals in my life and… At the end I just want to be able to say that "At least I did that." One good thing simply for its own sake. Please let me help you," he pleaded, "With the resources at my disposal you could help so many people."

"I'll run it by the others," Hiro said noncommittedly, "But no promises."

Strangely enough, it was Honey-Lemon and Fred who were the most supportive of the idea. Honey-Lemon was adamant that people could change and wish to better themselves while Fred insisted that, if Krei was not a supervillain, he could be a little bit like Batman. "By day, multibillionaire, by night, multibillionaire that fight's crime," was how he put it.

It took a whole night of discussion but, in the end, the pair had, for the most, won over their more cynical teammates.

"Alright, alright," GoGo had said, "We'll give a trial and see how it pans out."

**~o~O~o~**

"Alright, Alistair," Honey-Lemon said politely, "What did you want to talk to us about?"

"Oh not yet," he said, turning back to GoGo and Hiro and grinning, "I want to hear more about the happy couple. How long has it been? Is she a good kisser? I always thought that she was a biter? What about him? I imagine that he is a big cuddler. Is it serious? Come on, details, details."

Fred laughed.

"You guys just totally blew my mind with the big reveal," he said. Baymax, his pudgy fingers still trapped finally took interest in the discussion.

"If you are interested," said the robot, "I will download some pamphlets regarding safe sex and the prevention of transmitted–"

"That won't be necessary," Hiro cut in, preventing the conversation from going someplace scary, "That _really_ won't be necessary. Anyway," he said, turning back to Krei, "What's the situation?" The grin slipped off the CEO's face.

"I did some digging on that Skylark woman," he said.

"_I_ did some digging on that Skylark woman," Denise corrected him.

"Semantics," he replied before returning to the matter at hand, "Anyway, I was sure that I'd heard the name Katherine Skylark before and it turned out that I was right."

"So what did you, or rather, Denise, find?" Wasabi asked.

"She used to work for us," Denise answered, "She had a job at Krei Tech."

"_WHAT?!_" GoGo exploded, "She was working for you and you didn't tell us?"

"_Was_ working for us," Krei replied, "Emphasis on the word, _was._ She was fired six years ago, among other things. Anyway, my company has hired tens of thousands of people around the planet, you can't expect me to know them all by name."

"So what can you tell us about her?" Wasabi asked, desperately attempting to get the conversation back on track.

"In scientific terms," said Krei, "She's nuts." The others looked to Denise, hoping for a more… _technical_ description but, to their surprise, she shrugged and then nodded at them. "She was with us for four years as a designer at our Sydney headquarters in Australia," Krei continued.

"She worked with kangaroos?" Fred asked eagerly. Krei and Denise looked at him, their expressions clearly saying that they had no idea on whether he was joking or not.

"Sure," Denise said finally, "Why not? She worked with kangaroos."

"Wicked," Fred said happily before motioning for them to continue.

"Anyway," said Krei, "From what I've read, she was brilliant. She actually helped design some of the tech that we still use today in most of our factory generators."

"So why did you let her go?" Honey-Lemon asked.

"Like I said, she was nuts," he explained, "She became fixated with – no, _obsessed_ with one of the technicians working under her. She would send him inappropriate messages at all hours of the night, show up to his home unannounced and then finally she attempted to shoot his wife and child at a family celebration. She thought that if she killed them, he would then be free to be with her."

"She _is_ nuts," Hiro agreed.

"Where on Earth did she get a gun in _Australia?_" Wasabi mused thoughtfully.

"She built it," Denise instantly answered, "It was an earlier version of the weapon she used on the train."

"So I get why you fired her but why is she not stuck in some Australian prison right now?" GoGo asked.

"She was confined to a psychiatric facility but it turns out that she and fifty others were released prematurely due to extensive budget cuts from the new government, just two years into her treatment."

"I'm suddenly feeling a lot better about our country's mental health treatment," GoGo muttered darkly.

"And now she's on the loose somewhere in California," said Hiro.

"You remember what I said about catching her not being our problem?" GoGo said.

"Yeah," Hiro replied.

"I take that back. I _really_ don't want her on the loose."

"There's more," Krei cut in. He turned to Denise and motioned for her to fill in the rest.

"She didn't get out of lockup on her own," said Denise, "Yesterday I was finally able to get one of the officers present on the night to talk to me. According to her, two men broke in and shot up the place before getting away with her in Skylark in tow. They later found the getaway vehicle used in the escape abandoned outside the Black Sapphire nightclub."

"So she has a backer or followers or something like that," said Honey-Lemon sourly, "That's just great, I wasn't worried enough already." The normally stoic Denise cracked a smile.

"So, anyway, I was thinking that we, or rather _you_, could try to amplify Baymax's scanner even more than you've already done so," said Krei.

"I'm going to have to stop you right there," said Hiro, "We don't have any of Skylark's DNA."

"Doesn't Baymax just scan everybody automatically?" Denise asked in confusion.

"Not anymore," said Wasabi, "Automatically recording the data of everybody we come across isn't ethical so we reprogramed the scanner to only record when someone is in distress and in need of medical assistance. All of us are exceptions though so he can watch our vitals during missions."

"Damn," Krei muttered, "Okay, well, we'll need some other way to find her."

"I've got an idea," offered Wasabi, "I've been working on a "Detective Mode" for my suit's visor. Sort of a pet project but I could actually put some work into it and see if it could help."

"That's good," said Krei, "Anyone else have anything?" Honey-Lemon shrugged.

"We could see if there's any DNA belonging to Skylark at the station," she suggested, "I know it's unlikely after two weeks but I still think that we should at least look and make sure."

"I can help with that," said Denise, "I'm pretty sure that they'll let me back in."

"Go team," said Fred enthusiastically.

As he watched these young minds brainstorm about how to solve the present problem, Krei could not help but smile.

He saw the future that was ahead of him and realised that he really loved being a part of it.

**~o~O~o~**

**About the ethics of scanning people – I only made that an issue so that it wouldn't be an instant win **_**deux ex machina.**_** I'm not trying to push an agenda one way or the other so don't worry about that.**

**Also, while I haven't decided whether or not Hiro and GoGo will have sex or not in this story, if they did, how much detail would you want. I'm not turning it into a lemon or anything like that, I just have a massive hatred of the fade to black trope as I think it is really lazy writing.**

**Thirdly, I've been tossing up the idea of changing the fic's title as I am not 100% sure that it fits with where the story is going. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome unless you think that the title is fine, in which case, let me know in your reviews.**

**Finally, I'm thinking of possibly setting up Denise with one of the remaining three heroes. Any thoughts on that.**

**Thank you for reading. Please review and I'll see you next time.**


	7. The Calm Before the Storm

**Chapter Seven: The Calm Before the Storm**

"So is Hiro and GoGo _really_ a new development?" Denise asked as she and Honey-Lemon sat in the backseat of one of Krei Tech's luxury cars as the driver took them to the police station. "Krei wasn't mucking about… _entirely_. I actually thought that they already were dating for the past few months."

"Aw," Honey-Lemon crooned before ruining the effect by giggling like a schoolgirl, "Does someone spend a lot of time thinking about us?"

"It's purely business," Denise said dispassionately, "My job is to make sure that you're all in optimal condition to fight and save lives. Monitoring your relationships is simply part of that job."

"Your devotion to our emotional wellbeing is touching," Honey-Lemon deadpanned.

"It's my job," Denise insisted.

"Denise, I'm just teasing," Honey-Lemon said good naturedly, "You're always so serious that it's pretty much the only way to get any kind of emotional reaction out of you." Denise rolled her eyes.

"I just don't think that work is a time for acting childish," she said coolly.

"Oh, boy," said Honey-Lemon, "I wouldn't say that around Fred or Hiro… Or _me_ for that matter." She then deliberately smiled as childishly as possible at Denise. Her eyes suddenly widened as she noticed something. "Was that a smile?" she asked.

"What?"

"I think that I just saw a smile on your face," Honey-Lemon said triumphantly.

"There was _no_ smile," Denise insisted.

"There was a smile, I know what I saw."

"It was a smirk," Denise said firmly, "_Not_ a smile, a smirk."

**~o~O~o~**

"This is… _wow_. Why didn't you tell us that you were working on something like this?" Hiro asked in amazement as he admired Wasabi's work. It resembled a pair of silver rimmed sunglasses with a single green lens. The monitor was displaying the view that the cameras in the lens picked up with a heads up display that was currently monitoring the vitals of everybody present.

"I told you guys that this was just something I worked on when I was bored," Wasabi said, still smiling at the praise.

"I know but _still_, there has to be some serious code built into this," Hiro said, silently noting that he had once said almost the exact same thing when Tadashi had introduced him to Baymax.

"I've uploaded data on crimes committed all over the world from the past eighty years," Wasabi explained, "I've also had a couple of private investigators play around with the AI to give it some deductive reasoning."

"So this sucker's like Baymax?" Fred asked, "A full AI?"

"Not yet," Wasabi answered, "It's getting there though and soon if I actually put in some work. Although, speaking of Baymax, I did poke around with some of Tadashi's old notes about the big guy to get some pointers on starting up an AI."

"So what's are you calling this thing?" Hiro asked, "Because these things always need a name and since you're using some of Tadashi's notes it could be argued that this is Baymax's little brother or sister so I'm thinking that the name thing is kind of important."

"Fred, GoGo, Hiro," Wasabi proudly declared, "I'd like for you to meet Project Sentinel."

"Good name," GoGo observed, "So what do you need from us?"

"GoGo," he said, "I want you working on this thing's pool of knowledge. Get different occurrences of the same type of crime and upload the data on how they were solved. Try to walk it through the thought process of the officers in charge. Hiro, you've had more experience with AI than any of us so I want you to play around with its deductive reasoning and imagination. It can't just replicate previous cases as that will limit it, it needs that spark of human creativity that can think outside the box. As for me, I'll be finishing its safety protocols, that shouldn't take me too long but it still needs to be done. I've seen _The Terminator_ enough times to know that unshackled AIs never end well for humans. _Seek. Kill. Destroy_ and all of those wonderful things."

"What about me?" Fred asked.

"Ah…" Wasabi's voice trailed off for a moment as his mind whirled until he found an appropriate response. "Fred," he said finally, "You stand out in the hallway and act as a lookout."

"Right-o," the surfer dude said with a salute, "I am all over that."

With Fred safely out of the way, the others were now free to focus on their work without any distractions.

"Wait a minute," called Fred from the hallway, "What am I supposed to be looking out for?"

**~o~O~o~**

"Why on Earth would _Krei Tech_ give a damn about apprehending a fugitive?" asked the desk sergeant at the police precinct. She was a tall, muscular woman that towered over even Honey-Lemon and was looking at her visitors with an expression of suspicion. Denise rubbed her forehead in irritation.

"Because," she said in a measured, deliberate voice, "If you had been paying any attention you would understand that _Krei Tech_ has a vested interest in bringing this woman to justice."

"As we've explained," said Honey-Lemon, "We're working on a device that we hope will be able to track Skylark down but to do so we will require some of DNA and even then it will be a long shot unless it's a decent sample but it's still better than any other idea that's been suggested." The sergeant suddenly glared at her.

"And when did you become an expert in law enforcement, _Missy?_" she hissed, poking Honey-Lemon roughly in the chest, forcing the blonde back a step, "You have no idea what it's like dealing with this kind of scum every day. It's a war!"

"Step away from her right this instant!" Denise said sharply, her voice cracking like a whip.

"I want you both out of this building immediately," the sergeant barked, "And I don't want you sending down anymore representatives here either."

Honey-Lemon couldn't stop her hands from shaking.

"What was that?" she demanded as soon as they had retreated to the safety of the car, "It was like she thought that we were the enemy. They're supposed to be… Police officers are supposed to be… not _that!_"

"She's embarrassed over Skylark escaping," Denise said calmly, "Odds are that her superiors have been raking her over the coals in response to this. As for the attitude… Well, what do you think happens when you start trying to turn the police into the military? Small minded people that couldn't get into the army thinking that they're at war. She shouldn't have touched you. Are you alright?"

"Oh I'm fine," Honey-Lemon replied, "Just angry. I'm sorry, I should have just let you do all of the talking. She exploded when I suggested that we had a better plan."

"Nah," Denise disagreed, "She was going to go ballistic any second no matter what. However, this trip wasn't a total loss. My phone's computer might have copied and downloaded some, well technically _all_, of their security video footage from the night that Skylark escaped. It might give us a nudge in the right direction."

"Isn't that illegal?" Honey-Lemon asked worriedly, "Like really, _really_ properly illegal?"

"Says the vigilante who runs around the city in pink body armour, throwing ginormous balls of goop at evildoers," Denise replied dryly.

At least Honey-Lemon had the decency to blush at her statement.

**~o~O~o~**

_**Two Hours Later**_

"Oh this guy is clever," said Denise, scowling as she reviewed the security footage. She could see men in SWAT gear rush the police officers, shooting at them and clubbing them down with their assault rifles. And then the man that Denise assumed was their leader entered the scene. Unfortunately, she had no way of determining his identity.

"Is something wrong with the monitor?" Honey-Lemon asked, leaning down next to Denise to get a better look, "I can't make out the guy's face." Denise sighed. Honey-Lemon was indeed correct, in the otherwise unblemished security footage, where the man's face should have been was a ball of white light, completely obscuring his features.

"Unfortunately, the monitor is working perfectly," Denise replied, scowling, "That man, whoever he is, is wearing some sort of transmitter near his head that obscures it from the camera. It's invisible to the naked eye but to a camera it sends out a signal that prevents anything within the transmitters range from being seen. It's actually a brilliant bit of technology in all honesty. If not for the fact that he was a murdering, criminal psychopath I'd actually offer him a job."

"However, seeing as he _is_ actually murdering, criminal psychopath I think that, instead of offering him a job, we should probably try to apprehend him," said Honey-Lemon, grinning.

"Fair enough," said Denise sheepishly.

"Can we try to clear up the footage at all?" Honey-Lemon asked, back to the business at hand.

"There's nothing to clear up, unfortunately," Denise replied, "As far as the camera was concerned, all that was there was a ball of white light. We can play around with the video all we want but, short of actually putting in our own footage which would defeat the purpose of security cameras, at the end of the day there will still be a big ball of white light there."

"Bummer."

"Yes," Denise agreed, "Bummer."

**~o~O~o~**

_**The Next Day**_

"Okay," said Hiro as the circuitry that he had been working on burst into flames, "That one was my fault. My bad."

Baymax helpfully put out the fire with his built in fire extinguisher that Honey-Lemon had thoughtfully installed in him earlier that year.

**~o~O~o~**

"_Ah-ha!_" said Denise triumphantly, "I _knew_ that there was something that I didn't like about this guy."

"Aside from the fact that he's a murderous psychopath?" Honey-Lemon asked dryly.

"Yes, _aside _from the fact that he's a murderous psychopath," said Denise, smiling, "Look at his left wrist." Honey-Lemon did as instructed and shrugged.

"So he has wristwatch," she said, "Big whoop."

"Big whoop indeed," said Denise, ignoring the sarcasm for the time being, "That particular wristwatch is the _Königlich_, an absurdly expensive watch that very few people on the planet can afford. It's used more as a status symbol than as a time piece. If we reach out to _Untersuchung__, _the company that makes them, and broach the subject in the right way, we might even be able to get a list of their buyers."

"Even if it's an expensive watch, there could still be many, _many_ buyers," said Honey-Lemon doubtfully.

"Unlikely," said Denise, "The _Königlich_ only came on the market six weeks ago. And you're just a little impressed that I can correctly pronounce _Königlich_ correctly with the right accent." Honey-Lemon bushed.

"Just a little," she admitted.

**~o~O~o~**

_**The Next Day**_

GoGo pressed her lips against Hiro's with a fierce intensity. Her tongue was pressing for entry and he let it in as he cupped the back of her head.

"I thought that you didn't like big, dramatic kisses," he said, grinning. Still high on the fact that he was actually dating her.

"They're starting to grow on me," she replied before pecking him lightly on the cheek. She put on her helmet, turned around and hopped onto her hike before turning back to him and winking. "You have fun with Wasabi and Fred," she said, "I'll see you later tonight."

**~o~O~o~**

_**An Hour Later**_

GoGo sauntered into the office that Denise and Honey-Lemon were currently occupying and asked, "Did Unter… _er… _Unter, however you pronounce the watch making company's name, get back to you yet?"

"_Untersuchung_ is how you pronounce it and we were able to speak to them earlier this morning, actually," Denise replied, "And while at first they were not huge fans of giving out their customers' names –"

"The lady we spoke to called us, and I'm directly quoting here, _'arrogant Americans who think we own the world,'_" Honey-Lemon helpfully added.

"I'm not sure that's relevant," said Denise, but she smiled faintly all the same.

"I agree since I was actually born in Seoul, which is about as un-American as you can get," said GoGo.

"Anyway," continued Denise, "They became more amenable to our requests once we broached the idea of a joint business venture, a luxurious, status enhancing watch with all of the comforts of cutting edge technology. Side not, I now have to spend the next week actually making up the plan that I told them that I already have but it's beside the point. They're willing to give us the names of everyone that has bought the watch."

"Seeing as you haven't actually got the names here I'm assuming that there is a "but" coming next," GoGo stated.

"_But,_" Honey-Lemon said, "They absolutely refused to transmit the names, citing their customers' confidentiality."

"So how do we get the names?" GoGo asked.

"We have to physically go to their headquarters in Switzerland," she said before grinning, "Sounds exciting if you ask me." She suddenly frowned.

"What's wrong?" GoGo asked.

"Nothing," she replied, "It's just… You look a little different. Have you…? Oh, _that's_ it! You're not chewing gum."

"Really?" GoGo asked, before searching around her mouth with her tongue. Honey-Lemon was right! "I don't understand," she said in confusion, "I distinctly remember putting it in my mouth earlier today."

**~o~O~o~**

"Hey, Hiro, when did you start chewing gum?" Wasabi asked as worked on Project Sentinel's emergency protocols.

"I didn't," Hiro replied before realising that he was indeed currently chewing gum. "Where did that come from?"

**~o~O~o~**

"Howard! _Howard!_" Skylark called out excitedly. He man who had essentially acted as her butler for almost three weeks came rushing into the lab.

"What seems to be the problem, ma'am?" he asked immediately.

"Nothing's wrong," she said happily, grabbing his hands and spinning around, "I've _done it!_" His eyes widened at her words.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "So soon?"

"Take a look," she said, gesturing at her creation and its blueprints. He let his gaze wander over them for a minute before looking back at her and smiling.

"I do believe that our employer is going to be _very_ happy with your work," he said approvingly, "And then the _real_ work begins."

**~o~O~o~**

**I hope that you enjoyed his chapter and please remember to review.**

**Also, would you prefer shorter chapters with less time between updates or longer chapters with more time between updates?**


	8. Possibilities

**Chapter Eight: Possibilities**

Switzerland was always on the nicer lists. List of the top fifteen countries with the highest literacy scores, list of countries with the least gun violence, list of countries with the highest satisfaction of life among citizens. You know the kind of lists that I'm talking about, if Switzerland is on a list, you want your country to be on that list as well. Preferably somewhere near the top.

Basic point of the above paragraph, Switzerland is a pretty cool place and everyone was pretty excited to go.

Except for Fred. It wasn't that he _didn't _want to go, it was just that since he's family already owned a private ski resort in the country it wasn't as big a deal to him.

**~o~O~o~**

"Hmm," said GoGo thoughtfully, "If we all get this done quickly we might be able to get in some snowboarding in afterwards." As the Krei Tech private jet began its descent to the runway, she could see a thick layer of snow covering everything except for the tarmac (courtesy of the heaters installed underneath the runway reducing the snow to nothing but steam).

"I can get behind that idea but, personally, I think I'm more of a skier," said Honey-Lemon, "What about you, Denise?" Krei's short haired assistant rolled her eyes briefly.

"Please at least _try_ to remember that we're here on business," she said primly, "And snowboarding is so much cooler."

"Whoa, shots fired," Wasabi said quietly to Fred and Hiro, causing the three to laugh.

"Looks like we have a welcoming party," said Hiro, looking out the window. Sure enough, standing out in the snow were four figures, all warmly dressed to protect them against the weather.

"That will be the representatives from _Untersuchung_," said Denise, "The woman that I spoke to over the phone said that they wanted to see us before we got settled in at the hotel. They probably want to establish some ground rules for the duration of our stay so everyone just keep quiet and follow my lead. It should be fine."

"So how did Krei take the idea of _Untersuchung_ and _Krei Tech_ working together on that watch idea you had to come up with?" Fred asked, speaking for the first time in hours.

"He actually liked the idea on its own merits," Denise replied wryly, "He's actually spent the past three days tinkering on ideas for it. Honestly, he's like a school kid with a _papier_-_mâché_ volcano that erupts bi-carb soda and vinegar lava."

"Sounds adorable," GoGo deadpanned.

"It's really not," said Denise, "He gets really hyper-energetic when he's in ideas mode and there is a very real danger of having something thrown at your head if you interrupt him when he thinks that he's on the verge of a breakthrough."

"Sounds like someone that we all know," said Hiro, unsubtly nodding in Wasabi's direction.

"Hey!" he said defensively as everybody else laughed at him, "I don't do that."

"Uh, yeah you do."

"You definitely do."

"Kinda."

"Dude, you've totally been doing that kind of thing since grade school."

"It sounds like something you'd do and it really disturbs me that Krei is not the only one who does that," Denise finished. Hiro looked around at everyone.

"I think it's nice that we all got to share that," he said cheerfully.

**~o~O~o~**

"Wow, this is pretty swish," said GoGo, as she dropped her bag and collapsed onto the luxuriously soft king sized bed. Honey-Lemon walked through the door that connected their two adjoining suites. "Krei is certainly trying to get on our good side."

"You're telling me," she agreed, also flopping onto the bed.

"Buzz off, you've got your own bed in your room," said GoGo, giving the blonde a playful shove.

"But it's all the way over there," Honey-Lemon pouted.

"Oh fine," GoGo relented.

"Private rooms," said Honey-Lemon with a naughty grin on her face, "Just think of the possibilities." GoGo shook her head in dry amusement. Her best friend's severe lack of personal boundaries had long ceased to surprise her.

"Actually, that was something that I wanted to talk to you about," said GoGo, slightly hesitant.

"Talk about what?" Honey-Lemon asked casually.

"About the… uh… you know… the possibilities," said GoGo awkwardly. It took Honey-Lemon a full 2.47 seconds to realise just what her friend was saying and upon comprehension there was a massive grin plastered all over her face.

"Wow, that's huge," she said excitedly, "Wait, tonight?"

"Yeah," GoGo replied, keeping an excellent poker face.

"So tonight, you and Hiro are going to…?" Honey-Lemon's voice trailed off and she actually blushed.

"Yes, tonight, Hiro and I are going to have sex," GoGo said bluntly, "So, I was wondering if you'd be able to keep the others out of the way for a couple of hours later tonight."

"Yeah, I could do that," said Honey-Lemon enthusiastically, "So what's the plan? You're just gonna drag him back here and mount him?"

"Yep," GoGo replied, entirely deadpan, "That's more or less the plan." They laughed. "But you know," she continued, "I was thinking this would be a good time to… do that. We've been together for a few months, it's definitely serious and you can't deny that the Swiss Alps certainly help set the mood. I was thinking, bring him back here, have a romantic fire lit, snuggle close to him "to keep warm" and then, how did you put it, 'mount him'?"

"Simple, I like it," said Honey-Lemon brightly before becoming slightly more serious. "Hey can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Do you ever have one of those moments where you think that someone is flirting with you but there's also the possibility that they're just being friendly?" she asked.

"Well, if I'm being honest I did have quite a few of those moments with Hiro actually," GoGo replied with a small smile. "Is it Denise?" she asked suddenly, grinning wickedly at the crimson shade of colour that flooded into her friend's cheeks. If anything, her grin widened when Honey-Lemon was unable to speak, too shy to do anything but slightly jerk her head in a nod. "If you'd like, I could, I dunno, talk to her, subtly angle the conversation to you, see where she's at, that kind of thing. I mean, if you'd like," GoGo offered.

"Can I get back to you on that?" she asked nervously.

"Sure," GoGo said warmly, "But, if you want my advice, woman up and go for it. The worst that can happen is that she says no."

"Anyway, that's a problem for another day," said Honey-Lemon firmly, putting a pin in that topic for the time being, "Today, we're working on your problem. For the first time being intimate with him you're going to want to make an impression so let's have you looking at your best."

**~o~O~o~**

"You know, I'm less excited about this project than I was a few days ago," Hiro grumbled. He'd been in the hotel's sitting area for the past two hours working on the plans for Krei Tech's new luxury watch and had exactly fifteen balls of scrunched up paper to show for it. It was driving him crazy.

"What's the matter? Denise asked in the kind voice that indicated a near total lack of concern.

"It's this watch thing," Hiro replied, looking down at his empty paper, "I mean, over the past fifty years, tablets, watches and smartphones have all been stuffed with everything from music to a remote control for your car. What else can I add to this that won't just come across as forced?"

"You're entirely missing the point," Denise scoffed while reading a Krei Tech financial report for the last quarter, "We're making a watch simply to get a look at the company's books. Besides, it's just a product for corporate scumbags like me with more money than sense who buy things because they can. Seven years ago, Krei Tech sold a device that projected a holographic diamond for twenty-five thousand dollars each. All it did was literally project a holographic diamond, _nothing else._ There was no point to it. We sold out within the first week. So just make the damn thing look fancy and slap a vaguely European name on top of it and call it a day."

"You're a very cynical woman," Hiro observed.

"I work at it," she said coolly, "Anyway, why aren't you with the other guys? Where are those knuckleheads anyway?"

"Fred and Wasabi are busy attempting to build the most perfect ski ramp that was ever constructed," he answered, smirking slightly. "Wasabi has two doctorates."

"Is that a criticism?" she asked.

"Not at all," said Hiro, standing up and tossing away the paper, "That was me simply realising that Wasabi is much smarter than me. I think I'll go join them. I know that you're going to say no but manners dictate that I ask if you would care to accompany me. So, would you care to accompany me?"

"Not even remotely," she replied, not even looking up from her reading.

"Thank god for small mercies," said Hiro.

"A tiny little part of you was absolutely terrified that I was going to say yes, wasn't there?" she asked.

"Oh god yes," he said, grinning at her, "Now if you'll excuse, I have a ski ramp to help construct."

"Whoa, slow down, skippy," said Honey-Lemon, practically gliding into the room, "You're not going anywhere yet. GoGo was looking for you before. She said something about needing to talk to you."

"Do you know where she is?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think she's back in her room," Honey-Lemon replied.

"Alrighty then, I guess I'll go see what she wants then," Hiro said, "Could you let Wasabi and Fred know I'll be a little late?"

"For some reason I seriously doubt that," she muttered.

"What was that?" Hiro asked.

"Oh nothing, nothing at all," she said quickly, "Now run along." Hiro gave her bemused look before leaving the room. "I know something he does not," she said in a sing-song voice the _second_ that he was out of earshot.

"What are you up to?" Denise asked, actually looking up from her paperwork, "You look like the cat in the cream.

"Oh don't be so suspicious, Denise," Honey-Lemon said brightly, "I'm a naturally cheerful person. Everybody knows that."

**~o~O~o~**

_Knock! Knock!_

"It's unlocked," GoGo called out. The door opened to reveal Hiro. He paused at the threshold when he noticed the roaring fireplace. Exactly two nanoseconds later, he realised that his attention should be focused on the fact that GoGo was lying on the bed, posed rather provocatively. He stood rooted to the spot for several seconds until she rolled her eyes and said, "Are you going to close the door and join me or are you just going to stand there like a guppy at feeding time all night?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," he mumbled before closing the door and making his way to the foot of the bed before standing completely still.

"Are you joining me?" GoGo asked before patting the mattress, "Come on, it's okay." At a positively _glacial _pace, Hiro climbed onto the mattress and she pulled him close so she pressed against him. "Are you alright?" she asked, "I can feel your heart beating. It's going a mile a minute."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he said quickly, "Just ah… What's happening?"

"Let me give you a hint," she said before kissing him on the mouth. It was a serious kind of kiss, far deeper and more lingering than any of their previous kisses. Eventually she broke it. "Figured it out yet?" Hiro swallowed nervously.

"I think I'm starting to," he said.

"Are you okay with this?" she asked, wanting to make sure that he was comfortable with taking this step.

"Definitely," he replied, "Just… nervous. You know… I haven't ever done _this_ so it's just…" His voice trailed off. She grinned and kissed him again.

"It's going to be fine," she assured him before taking his hands in hers and moving them towards her waist. She then manipulated his fingers so that he was gripping the hem of her shirt. She then chuckled when he did nothing. "Are you going to take off my shirt?" she asked, "I know it's your first time but this is a two person thing so come on. Take it off." Her attitude about the whole thing made Hiro laugh slightly. He was still nervous but she made him feel safe.

"Alright then," he said and he slowly and deliberately pulled the shirt up and over her head. She tossed the shirt off to the side and he couldn't help but smile.

"What?" she asked.

"I think you're beautiful," he whispered before leaning down and kissing her again.

**~o~O~o~**

**Please remember to review**


	9. Who Will Rebuild San Fransokyo?

**Disclaimer: There is some mildly detailed sexual content in this chapter. Nothing graphic or worth any near an M rating but the warning is there just in case that bothers you in which case you can just scroll down past it.**

**I hope you enjoy the chapter**

**Chapter Nine: Step One - Who Will Rebuild San Fransokyo?**

Katherine Skylark was a woman of unyielding will. If she wanted something, she would move Heaven, Earth and Hell in order to get it. She would never be denied what she felt what she was owed.

Which is why she was currently in a submersible that was rapidly descending to the bottom of San Fransokyo's harbour. Did it bother her that her actions would lead to the deaths of hundreds, possibly _thousands_ of people? Not for a single, solitary second. She knew that with every breath that she took, around the world, many would take their last, so what did it matter if it happened to be because of her doing? People were going to die anyway, so why not the people of San Fransokyo?

_Tap._

She could feel the small impact as her aquatic craft made contact with the ocean floor and smiled. Back in the previous century, during the 1920s… or possibly the 1930s (in all honesty, she was never really that attentive in modern history class), massive earthquakes and tsunamis absolutely _annihilated _the entire city of San Francisco. _That's what you get for building a major city on a major fault line,_ she thought to herself. Reconstruction was only possible due to the massive number of Asian immigrants who stepped forward to help and the city was renamed as a gesture of both gratitude and fraternity, joining the two cultures together and ending much of the senseless hatred and bigotry that had existed previously. With the flick of a switch, she released the submersible's cargo.

As she watched it move into position, she idly wondered who would help rebuild the city _this_ time around.

"My money's on the Russians," she said out loud, "After what happened to Moscow, they need all the good press they can get."

"_What was that?_" Howard asked over the radio.

"Ah, don't worry about it," she replied, "Just thinking out loud. Now let's do this thing."

**~o~O~o~**

"You're up early." Wasabi looked up from his work to see Fred swagger into the sitting area.

"Couldn't sleep," he replied, "So I thought that I'd take another crack at _Sentinel._ I know that I'm close, really, _really_ close but there's just some small bits of code that I… just… can't… _get to work._"

"Dude," Fred said sympathetically, "I wish I could help."

"Don't worry about it," Wasabi replied, "I'm sure that I'll figure it out eventually. It's just the fact that I'm so _freaking _close that's getting to me." Fred looked at his watch. _6:14 a.m._

"Okay then," he said, "I've got an idea then. You're gonna get it eventually, we all know that so why not put your mind to a more pressing matter?"

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that we're at the Swizz Alps and we just built a humongous ski ramp last night that's in dire need of being tested," Fred answered, "Plus the fact that we're not meeting with those watch people until midday meaning that we have hours to kill." Wasabi's face lit up at the suggestion.

"You know what?" he said, "That's not a half bad idea."

**~o~O~o~**

There was something different when Hiro woke up. Among other things, he realised that he normally didn't go to sleep in the nude but that wasn't all that was different. He was still a little drowsy so it took him several seconds but, after slightly lifting his head up from his pillow, he noticed that he was not alone. Someone else was in the bed with him. Or, more accurately, his arms were currently wrapped around a rather small person with short dark hair with a streak of purple running through it. Suddenly, it hit him like a thousand volts of electricity.

GoGo was in his bed. GoGo Tomago was in his bed. The amazing, smart, cool, incredibly confident, sexy, sarcastic GoGo Tomago was in his bed. She was in his bed and he was naked. A quick glimpse under the covers revealed that she was in the same state of undress. He stole another quick peak at her and then suddenly the entire night came flooding back.

He, Hiro Hamada had just had sex with GoGo.

His head collapsed back against the pillow and he let out a small laugh, quiet so as to not disturb… _GoGo._ Yes, he wasn't dreaming, she was still there and she let out a small, sleepy yet contented sigh.

He could remember it all, his near crippling nerves, the way that her half gentle teasing/half affectionate smile had put him at ease, the heat of her lips, the sensation of her tongue in his mouth, the excitement he felt as her clothes were slowly peeled off one layer at a time, the way that the firelight had danced across her bare skin, the weight of her body atop his, her skin against his, her wetness, her warmth, the sounds of her breathing, her quiet gasps and moans, her collapsing atop him and finally the feeling of contentment as they slowly drifted to sleep, their bodies intertwined.

All in all, he concluded, it had been a pretty good night. Whilst he had theoretically understood the basic mechanics of it all, putting it into practice was another thing entirely. GoGo had been very patient with him as he figured it all out with only the occasional instruction or word of encouragement. Basic stuff really, where and how she liked to be kissed, what felt good for her, what felt good for _him,_ where and how _he_ liked to be kissed… He liked that bit.

She stirred, letting out another sigh and her eyes slowly opened. She smiled drowsily at him and said, "Hey."

"Hey, yourself," he replied, gently caressing the side of her face with two fingers.

"Sleep okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied, "Very, very okay. You?"

"Very, very okay," she echoed before leaning in for a kiss that went deeper and deeper and before too long they had moved so that she was lying flat on her back with him on top her, a complete reversal of the previous night. She grinned up at him. "This is a nice change of pace from last night," she teased, "You seem a bit more confident. Although don't get _too_ cocky, Casanova, that was only your first time."

"Duly noted," he replied, repositioning himself between her legs when…

Suddenly the adjoining door swung inward.

"Are you two knuckleheads decent?" Honey-Lemon asked as she glided in to the room. GoGo immediately threw Hiro to the side and grabbed the partially discarded blanket to cover herself. Despite her firm, unyielding grip, Hiro managed to pull some of the blanket to protect his modesty. "Still at it?" she noted dryly, "Passions of new love and all that I suppose."

Resigned to the fact that since Honey-Lemon was present any possibility of continuing their… _previous activity,_ Hiro asked her, "Is there a reason that you're here or did you just feel like chatting?"

"Oh don't be so embarrassed," she said, laughing at his discomfort, "I've been roommates with both of you at some point so it's nothing I haven't seen. Anyway, I thought you should know that any minute, Fred and Wasabi are going to come up the stairs and start banging on your door as they want you to you to come check out their, and I'm quoting here, "totally _bitchin'_ ski ramp." I just assumed that you'd rather not have that conversation _in flagrante delicto__._"

"Quit showing off your education," GoGo grumbled, "Let them know that we'll be down soon. Do _not_ let them come up here." With a bit of a mocking wink, Honey-Lemon quickly left the way that she came. Hiro groaned in irritation before climbing off the bed and searching for his clothes. "What do you think you're doing?" GoGo asked.

"I suppose I'm getting dressed," Hiro replied.

"Not likely," she said sternly, throwing off the covers that had previously been concealing her, spreading herself across the mattress quite provocatively and giving him a very pointed look, "I told her to tell them that we'd be down soon. Soon as in _later._ Back here, _now._"

"Yes, ma'm," he said before walking back towards her.

**~o~O~o~**

It was an act of pure hubris to build a major city on top of a well-known potential disaster. After Pompeii, all of mankind should have learned a very simple lesson: stand to close to the fire and you will get burned. Sadly, collectively, humans are not the quickest of learners when it comes to potential disasters. After all, if something can potentially happen, it could potentially _not _happen as well and why waste time trying to prevent something that might not happen?

The device that had been discreetly placed at the bottom of the San Fransokyo bay silently activated.

It was subtle at first but suddenly the tremors started to increase in strength and violence.

Once they were done, the waves started.

**~o~O~o~**

"I didn't think it could get better before," Hiro said, lazily tracing his fingers along GoGo's spine, causing her to sigh softly in satisfaction, "But, _wow,_ that was pretty good."

"You've seen nothing yet," she mumbled into the mattress before rolling over onto her back so she could face him, touching her fingers to the side of his face. "I really don't want to be the voice of reason here," she said, "As much as I'd like to go for another round, we really _do _need to get up. We have a busy day ahead of us."

"It's probably for the best," Hiro agreed, "I don't think I could do another without a blood transfusion anyway." He kissed her on the lips. "There's just one problem."

"What's that?" she asked.

"We have to get up," he said simply.

"That _is_ a problem," she replied before, for the second time that morning, the door swung inward.

"Get dressed," said Honey-Lemon sharply, her previous levity gone, replaced with something that Hiro could only describe as dread. He and GoGo both retreated for the safety of their blanket, covering themselves.

"What's wrong?" GoGo asked, noting the rather dramatic change in her friend's demeanour.

"You need to see this," Honey-Lemon said, turning on the room's television which suddenly displayed a scene of pure, unbridled carnage.

"… _we're still receiving information but we have at least five hundred deaths, almost certainly more. For those just tuning in, this is San Fransokyo, eleven-fifteen p.m. local time. What we're looking at right now is where the Golden Gate Bridge used to stand. There's one of the support columns… Oh my god, there's someone down there._"

"What the hell's happened?" Hiro asked in shock, no longer caring about Honey-Lemon's intrusion.

"San Fransokyo was hit by a _huge_ earthquake," she replied, pausing, still not fully able to process what had happened, "It was followed by a series of massive tsunamis. A… Oh God… Ah, a huge portion of the city is lost."

"_Aunt Cass!_" Hiro shouted in horror, "She's in town!" Not caring about his lack of clothing, he sprinted over to where his phone was charging.

"I already tried," Honey-Lemon interrupted, "Nothing's getting through, all of the towers have to be down."

"Oh, god," Hiro breathed.

"Baymax is there," GoGo said firmly, "He'll look after her."

"We have to go," Hiro said urgently.

"Denise has already cancelled the meeting," Honey-Lemon informed them, "The plane leaves in just over an hour so get dressed."

**~o~O~o~**

Cass slowly attempted to push the rubble off of her but the weight of it all was simply too much for her to support.

She was hurt, that much she knew. Part of the Lucky Cat Café's ceiling had collapsed onto her as had a support column, pinning her to the floor. She was also fairly certain that both of her legs were broken and her right arm wasn't in much better shape. She violently coughed out a mixture of dust, blood and spit, the motion causing the debris to further dig into her side.

"_Help me,_" she managed to gasp, "Is anyone there?"

Her vision started to dim.

**~o~O~o~**

**Please remember to review.**


	10. Ground Zero

**Chapter Ten: Ground Zero**

"It's going to be okay," said GoGo for what had to have been the tenth time that hour, "It's just over two hours until we get there. She'll be fine."

Hiro said nothing, his gaze was silently fixed to the screen that was displaying images of the ruined San Fransokyo. An entire section of the city had crumbled and slid into the still churning waters of the bay. Somewhere in that carnage was the only parent he had ever known.

"Have you been able to make contact with the city?" Honey-Lemon quietly asked Denise. She shook her head.

"No, nothing has been able to get through," she replied, just as quietly, "There's a city wide blackout and none over the towers are transmitting. I don't even know if Alistair is alive." It didn't need to be said out loud that things were serious if Denise was referring to Krei by his first name.

"We couldn't get rid of him that easy," Honey-Lemon said, briefly hesitating before placing her hand on top of Denise's, "We're not that lucky." The normally stern looking woman may have cracked the merest _hint_ of a smile at her words.

"I suppose not," she replied before glancing down at Honey-Lemon's hand which was still resting atop her own. "You and your constant need to be all touchy-feely is quite remarkable," she remarked drily. Honey-Lemon immediately jerked her hand back.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, looking down at the floor, "I-I thought… I'm so sorry…"

"I was just making an observation," said Denise, pausing for a moment before coming to a decision. "However, that doesn't mean that I don't like it," she said in that same casual tone of voice, "Because I do. Like it, that is."

"Oh… _Oh._" Honey-Lemon's tone was considerably brighter than it had just been moments before.

"So you can put your hand back."

"Ok."

**~o~O~o~**

A piercing beam of light suddenly stabbed through the darkness. Cass groggily looked at it, too weak to shield her eyes.

"Cassandra Hamada," said an obviously synthesised voice, "Can you hear me?"

"Wha…" she began, the effort of finishing the sentence was simply too great.

"Can you hear me?" the voice repeated.

"Yes," she managed to say in a feeble voice, "Who… _Ah!_" She groaned in pain as the column pining her to the floor dug further into her side. "Who are you?" she forced out.

"I am Baymax," said the voice and the light dimmed enough so that she could make out its source. It was a large, bloated white figure encased in some kind of red armour. Had she the energy, no doubt she would have screamed in terror. However, all she could manage was a quiet whimper. "Please do not be alarmed," said the figure, "I am a medical bot here to help and am a friend of your nephew, Hiro."

"Hiro?" she repeated weakly.

"Yes," said Baymax, "Hiro. I apologise if my appearance is a cause of alarm but due to the current crisis, my programing requires me to wear armour to maintain my structural integrity. Now, I need you to stay still. I am going to attempt to free you from this debris but this location is now extremely unstable and any unnecessary could be dangerous. Do you understand what I have said?" She nodded.

"Very good," said the robot before gripping the support column, "Please inform me if you experience any discomfort."

**~o~O~o~**

"Is everyone okay?" Alistair Krei called out into the pitch black, "Is anyone there?" He reached for his phone and activated the flashlight app, making it marginally better to see. A faint moan came out of the gloom to respond to him. Krei stood up before immediately toppling over due to a sharp stabbing pain in his left leg. Clearly there was some damage there. "Hang on," he groaned, propping himself up and favouring his right side before hobbling over towards the source of the moan. He shone the light around until he saw a figure lying limp on the floor. She was a young woman, clearly somewhere in her early twenties and was impaled on a metal rebar, blood freely rushing from the gaping wound. She was gripping the bar weakly before her arms flopped uselessly to her side.

Krei immediately ripped his jacket off (uncaring of the buttons sent flying) and shoved it into her wound in an attempt to stem the stream of red that was flowing out of her. Her eyes rolled towards the back of her head and began to close. "Hey, hey, hey, easy there," he said in what he hoped was a casual tone of voice as he applied pressure to the wound, "You've got to stay awake, sweetheart. If you fall asleep it's going to be very boring for me with nobody to talk to."

"_M… nmsnt… swrt…_"

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," he replied in that same bright, casual voice.

"My name is… _not_… sweetheart," she said slowly, deliberately, never breaking eye contact with him.

"So do you have a name then?"

"Rebecca… Stonewall…" she gasped after some effort.

"Good to meet you Becky," he said in response, "I'm Alistair Krei."

"Yeah, I know who you are. Your name is on the building." Despite the tremendous amount of pain she had to have been in, her sarcasm stuck to every syllable. "And… _Ah! _... Don't… call me _Becky._"

"Alright, Becky," he said flippantly, "Stick with me and I'll get you out of here."

**~o~O~o~**

"Cell towers are down but what about shortwave radio?" Hiro asked, desperate for a way to contact his aunt.

"Baymax has an antennae in his helmet which I would assume he's wearing right now," Honey-Lemon agreed, "With everything that's happened in the city now, he'd have to wear it or risk a puncture. And since he's programmed to treat Cass as a person of high priority so it stands to reason that he's with her. If we find him, we find her."

"As soon as we touch down we'll give it a try," said GoGo before turning to Denise, "What about Krei? If he made it through all this would he have a way for us to contact him?"

"He keeps an emergency shortwave in his office," Denise replied, "So if he's at _Krei Tech_ we may have a chance to get into contact with him."

"Once we're sure they're all safe we should probably head out and help anyone else we can find," said Fred seriously. "Look at that," he added, pointing at the television that was still displaying images of the wrecked city, there's no way emergency services can cover all of that. They're gonna need all the help they can get." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. If Fred was acting serious it was a clear indication that things were bad. "I know you're not gonna want to hear this, Hiro," he said reluctantly, "But you and I should do that as soon as we land."

"No way in hell," Hiro snapped, "If you think I'm leaving Aunt Cass alone at a time like this –"

"Hiro, listen to me, man," Fred interrupted, "You and I are the only ones here who know squat about medicine. Wasabi and Honey-Lemon are doctors and GoGo at least has basic medical training. If Cass or Krei are hurt, well, to be honest, you and I aren't worth a damn. All we'd do is just stand around and get in the way. We're better use out there, helping anyone that's trapped or in danger. That way at least we're doing something good."

"He's right, Hiro," GoGo said quietly. Hiro swivelled his chair to face her, disbelief washing over his face.

"Go," he whispered desperately, "No you too." She walked over to him and knelt so that she was at eye level with him.

"Hiro," she said simply, "Do you trust me?" He wanted to retort that Cass was his Aunt and that she had to be his priority but she took his hand and looked him in the eye. "Do you trust me?" she repeated. Finally he nodded. "Good."

**~o~O~o~**

Once Cass had been safely dislodged from under the fallen debris, Baymax immediately set about assessing her injuries. Both of her legs were broken near the knees and her right arm had a hairline fracture. However, thankfully, there was no apparent damage to her neck or spinal cord.

"Miss Hamada," Baymax said once she had been settled, "Both of your legs are broken and you have a mild hairline fracture on your right forearm. I am going to coat them in a foam which will harden and protect them from further damage. However, I will have to set them first which will cause you some pain. Do you consent to the proposed treatment?"

"Just do whatever you have to do," she said wearily as the robot went to work on her. To her credit, she made no scream of pain nor sign of protest when the robot set about the grim task of resetting her bones into place. Once the foam had hardened, she let her head rest on the ground and let out a choked sob. "Thank you," she said between deep breaths.

"You are most welcome," the robot replied.

**~o~O~o~**

"That's not good," said Krei as the building groaned and shook slightly.

"And that's the understatement of the century," Rebecca said fiercely before coughing up a mouthful of blood.

"We can't stay here," said Krei, nervously, "Judging by the sound we just heard this whole section could fall away at any moment."

"So get this thing out of me," Rebecca said thickly.

"It's not that simple," Krei said, kneeling down next to her, "If we do that, it could do even more damage going out and we won't be able to stop the bleeding."

"What does that mean?" she asked with growing concern in her voice.

"It means that I'll need help to get you free," he replied, "Back in my office, I have a short-wave radio. If we're lucky, it should still be working and, if we're even luckier, someone might pick up the signal."

"What if they don't?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said, "Now I have to leave you to go get it but I'm coming back. Okay? Just hold on for a couple of minutes and maintain pressure on the wound." She reached out and weakly latched onto his hand.

"Please don't go," she begged, "I-I don't want to die alone."

"Hey, hey, Becky, look at me," Krei said firmly, "You are not going to die today. I promise. Now, I'll be back in a couple of minutes. I'll see you soon."

**~o~O~o~**

"Again," said Denise into the radio's receiver, "This is Denise. If there is anyone alive at Krei Tech please respond. Over." Denise, Honey-Lemon and Wasabi were in a helicopter soaring over the devastated city, Denise at the controls. She was flying towards Krei Tower, the most likely place to find Krei. Denise turned and looked at Honey-Lemon.

"Keep trying," Honey-Lemon said encouragingly but before Denise could respond there was a burst of static.

"…_kkkkk …. kkkk is in critical condition and requires immediate medical aide or she will not survive. I repeat, this is Alistair Krei and my companion is –_"

"Alistair," Denise exclaimed, "This is Denise, we're reading you. Where are you?"

"_Denise? What are you doing back in the States? You know what, never mind, I'm just happy you're here. I'm on the top floor but we need help. I've got an intern with me who's been hurt real bad and I think the building is about to come down._"

"Can you move her to the roof?" Denise asked.

"_That's a negative,_" came the reply, "_She's impaled on rebar. I'm afraid that if I move her I'll just cause even more damage, maybe even kill her._"

"Okay, stay with her and we'll come to you," she said, "Keep the channel open so we can track you. See you soon, boss."

"_I'll be counting the seconds._"

**~o~O~o~**

Fred grunted with effort as he lifted the rubble. Even with his suit's enhanced strength, it was still quite the task. "Okay, _now!_" he said and Hiro skidded through the newly formed gap and pulled out the trapped woman underneath.

"Are you alright?" Hiro asked her.

"I'm fine," she said, nodding wearily as a thin trail of blood escaped her lips, "Thanks for getting me out of there."

"There's an emergency tent two blocks down that way," he said, pointing, "Do you think you can make it? There's other people trapped in what's left of this building."

"Yeah, I can do that," she replied before hobbling in the direction he had indicated.

"Alright," Hiro said, "Onto the next section."

**~o~O~o~**

"Okay," said Krei, applying more pressure to Rebecca's wound with one hand while holding her hand with the other, "Just hold on a little longer, Becky, and my friends will come to help."

"I told you not to call me Becky," she replied, although with less venom this time.

"Yeah, I heard you," he said grinning, "But, I figure if I keep calling you that, you'll stay alive and get better, if for no other reason than to kick my ass afterwards."

"I suppose I can't fault that logic," she said before coughing up a mouthful of blood. "Is it just me or is it getting colder?"

"Just keep holding my hand, sweetheart," Krei said, "Just hold on a little bit longer. Help is coming I promise."


End file.
